THE DEVOLUTION CROSS-ROADS!

Our much anticipated devolution is slowly turning into a monster, at least to a considerable chunk of the Kenyan populace. Disillusionment and apathy is slowly taking over the eerie and zeal that we had on 27^th August 2010, as we promulgated the new law at a colorful ceremony at Uhuru Park. The world came to witness and tossed the chalice with us. Kenya was simply a darling of many! But years down the line, this is not all a bed of roses as we thought. No, it is not! 

The country is on two minds; some say that the seats are unnecessarily many, roles have been duplicated and yes, different seats yet the same responsibility. This is why the woman representative has been proposed for the chopping board, alongside other MPs and senators. Governors are not that safe too! All this are over-bulging an already bloated wage bill!

However, there is a side that has been rather overlooked may perhaps give us an answer to correcting our devolution. It lies in the moral and social consciousness of the Kenyan society, and our elected, nominated and appointed leaders should listen to this. They would then reconsider going on a soul-searching voyage to re-evaluate what leadership really entails.

Leadership is service to the people, and standing up to be counted upon by those who chose you as their leader. It is not about being self-centered and amassing wealth at the expense of poverty and problem afflicted population, no it is not.Leadership is not about getting fuel-guzzling cars, being exorbitant on getting flashy offices and residential houses and spending big on trips, all at the expense of quality service delivery. No it is not. Leadership is putting the greater good of the people above all personal and individualistic endeavors.

When it comes to political leadership the Kenyan style, one thing is for sure; it is about the selfish and personal interests of the leaders, the rest come in distant second. They will gallantly fight for increased salaries, exemptions from paying tax, grants to buy cars, increased budgets under their watch, never mind that accountability and transparency is non-existent to them and all manner of reasons to help their selfish and individualistic interests. Then you add the corruption scams and the misappropriation of public funds, and the list gets murkier!

If our county assemblies members, MPs, women representatives, senators and governors were the ideal products of a morally sound society, whereby social justice and patriotism ruled, would we still be thinking of reducing all these posts? No, I do not think so. On the contrary, we would be having overs 1400 MCA’s, 350-plus MPs, 47 Governors and senators, each correctly and prudently managing their area of jurisdiction. This would translate to a maiden walk in devolution that would be the perfect recipe to develop our beloved nation.

Devolution is the cure to brightening up the marginalized Northern Kenya, alleviating the impoverished Coast, enhancing healthcare to all Kenyans, improving security, taking our road infrastructure to the next level and ensuring that all social amenities are readily available and in the best quality possible. Devolution is the easiest yet surest way to realize Vision 2030! To the brainy head that gave birth to devolved governance in Kenya, the best interests of the nation were at heart.

However, devolution has been hijacked by selfish and self-centered individuals who see it as the easiest road to amassing wealth and plundering public coffers. Car grants, increased perks and all sorts of monetary benefits are the priorities. Service delivery to the populace of most of the counties is slowly being relegated to the back-foot!

Political pronunciations aside, this country Kenya risks being milked dry. The president publicly said it; yes, we risk running bankrupt. We are running with the risk of a bankrupt central government and equally bankrupt devolved governments. We must clump down on this lustful and egocentric desire for money and more money, increased perks, increased salaries, allowances and extravagant spilling of public money by some of those charged with the responsibility of steering devolution in all the 47 counties.

The Swahilis say, Chanda chema huvikwa pete. We  must laud those who are diligently making devolution work for the greater good of Kenya! Those who belong to the class of Dr. Alred Mutua, the Machakos County boss!

POOR PREPARATIONS COST US IN CONTINENTAL TOURNEYS

‘It was a terrible game. We were chasing shadows most of the time and we had no chance of getting anything from that match’ these were the words of GorMahia’s Scottish coach, Bobby Williamson. This was at the team’s arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, from their 5-0 hiding at the hands of mighty Esperance FC of Tunisia. With this humiliation, our mighty K’Ogalo was bundled out of this year’s CAF Champions League, on 8-2 aggregate!

 

Back to the Nyayo National Stadium, AFC Leopards were eliminated by South Africa’s Supersport United, famously Matsatsantha, after a 2-2 draw, to bow out on a 4-2 aggregate. The 2-0 loss a week earlier in Atteridgeville all but ended Ingw’es chances in this year’s CAF Confederations Cup. Our two flag bearers in continental action are out and we have to wait till 2015 to try our jinxed luck in continental soccer.

To the diehard fans of Ingw’e and GorMahia, their favorite teams were supposed to go some way in battling for this trophies, never mind the fact that they were faced with the continent’s best; the dreaded giants of African football. The fact that Tuzo Milk and Mumias Sugar Companies have heavily bankrolled these giants of Kenyan football further strengthened the hopes and expectations of the fans. But wait a minute, the preparations or lack of it, broke the camel’s back.

The build-up by both AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia, and preparations for their continental assault, were at best mediocre! During the pre-season, South Africa’s Supersport United defeated Barclays Premier League giants Manchester City 2-0. This was during the latter’s pre-season tour of South Africa. To cut a long story short, Supersport were simply gauging themselves against the world’s best, with the 2014 Caf Confederations Cup in mind. Their opponents, our beloved Ingw’e were playing some nondescripts team in town. The only meaningful opposition was in the 2014 Mapinduzi Cup in Tanzania. They then signed a host of new players and offthey were good to go, at least the Kenyan way. They played in the Kenyan season curtain-raiser, the KPLC Charity Cup, and miserably failed to deliver the goods. Mathare United tossed them out in the first match of the knock-out tournament and all we remember best is their fans going hay-wire and turning Nyayo Stadium into chaos! However, this is story for another day.

In the K’Ogalo camp, nothing was much different from their mashemejis!The age-old Kenyan story of run-of-the-mill preparations. Harambee Stars are used to this! The only meaningful build-up matches they tasted was in the knock-out KPLC Charity Cup, where they were clobbered 3-0 by Sofapaka, who went on to lift the cup. Just as in the Ingw’e den, the fans turned chaotic; chairs and stones flew all over, as the police battled them, both inside and outside Nyayo Stadium.

Far away in Tunis, Esperance had top-notch preparations and a pre-season camp in Europe is not sterile imagination! Not for a technically and tactically apt team as Esperance showed a in the first leg played in Nairobi. The giants from Tunisia put three past the green army and even the toughest of the die-hard mayienga followers, must have seen the end in sight. The return match in Tunis was going to be some baptism of fire and the 5-0 crushing summed it all. An aggregate of 8-2 just drew out the huge difference between these two teams.

The writing is on the wall. Our football clubs have a lot to do. Having the financial muscle as Ingw’e and K’Ogalo have, and making prudent use of it are two different things.Our clubs need professionals in their ranks, to scout talent and recruit players based on the specifically needed tactical and technical aspects presently. Signing sprees simply because money is available should not happen; otherwise huge salaries will be paid out to players who cannot deliver the goods. Lastly, preparations for any tournament, regional or continental, should be given the needed attention and effort. Mediocre preparations as what AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia did in their build-up to the dismal continental action should not be repeated. You cannot play against County League teams and other nondescript clubs, yet your opponent is camping in Europe or lining up friendlies against the likes of Manchester City, Never! Learning from your superior opponents is the spirit of the game. The technical benches of Ingw’e and K’Ogalo should have learned from their Esperance and Supersport United counterparts. That way, we will go up the football ladder!

Elsewhere, former Bayern Munich’s president Uli Hoeness has just been sentenced to three and half years in jail for tax evasion in his duty as the club’s president. Can our very own football administrators be scrutinized for any football crime in the same way, and made to pay for the same if found guilty?

AUSTERITY THE WAY TO GO

Since the four-day cabinet retreat headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, austerity and cutting government expenditure on salaries has been the hottest air around. The president and his deputy, William Ruto have led the way; a 20% cut from their salaries. The cabinet secretaries are in with a 10% chop. The trend is extending across the civil service. The president warned those in government offices too unwilling to chop off their fat wallets that they should start looking for these lavish salaries in other organizations! 

Austerity is the word and now the Jubilee government under the watch of President Uhuru, has decided to cut down the staggering figures that are used as salaries for our public servants. According to the Sarah Serem-led Salaries and Remuneration Commission, we use Ksh 500 billion to cater for our public service wage bill annually! This is a staggering 50% plus of the total revenue collection by the government. As a result, the development projects are greatly fizzled out by the mind-boggling wage bill. We simply work to pay salaries!

But perhaps, this move is akin to just treating the malaria symptoms instead of the doctor going the whole hog and administering the painful medication that includes, bitter pills and the painful injections. Simply call it, choosing the painful way to kill off the malaria! Back to this serious business of the public wage bill. We have tough decisions to take and almost unpalatable choices that must be taken. Allowances must be drastically reduced or chopped off all together and the toughest of them all, political offices and posts must be trimmed down. A national referendum offers us a way of reducing these posts and offices. Our county assembly members, women representatives, members of parliament, senators and governors are simply too many. But, the naysayers should not accuse me of fighting devolution, no. It is just a means of making devolution more efficient. We can have lesser county units and constituencies too, reduce on the expenditure and improve the efficiency of our devolution.

Perhaps we should scrutinize this; over 300 members of parliament, 47 women representatives, 47 Governors, 47 Senators, members of our county assemblies,  the county secretaries, the outrageous spending by some governors to acquire their official cars and numerous trips abroad apparently to enhance their brains on this devolution thing. They have their backroom staff too. There is also the hard truth that we find uneasy to discuss; that there is over-employmentnewsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com nairobinews.co.ke and duplication of duties, both at the central and county governments. Back to the central government and a keen eye once more on its expenditure. Entertainment allowance, house, foreign trips and all manner of allowances are some of the perks that our cabinet secretaries and parastatal chiefs enjoy. Compare this with our neighbors Rwanda, whereby ministers are only facilitated to buy their official cars and the rest including drivers and maintenance is upon them, then you just realize how wasteful we are with our resources.

It is clear even to the hoi-pollois in the streets of Nairobi and the villages in the Kenyan countryside that, public service is all about enjoying the perks and the trappings that come with it. It is hardly due to the patriotic good-will to serve and improve the Kenyan society. Perhaps some of the leadership parables that portray leadership posts as a yam, cake or loaf of bread among others are all too common in political talk. Most of those eyeing the posts, either elective of appointment, see them as the perfect opportunity to eat, loot and get a mansion in Runda or Karen. The paradox of political leadership in Kenya!

Many have warned that this monster of a wage bill is taking us down the Greece road, if not checked before the day-break! The president has taken a bold step and the entire nation should rally behind him. Austerity is no rocket-science and we do not need a commission to sit, eat unnecessary allowances while deliberating and giving us findings on how to slay this monster of ballooning salaries in the public service!

THE ILL LUST FOR MONEY!

It is the craze for money that now runs deep in our veins! But even before I go further, we all agree that we dream big; living lavish lives where lack no longer defines our daily lives. It is acceptable to the human nature that we all strive to better our lives and make a better tomorrow. This strong will by Kenyans to get rich must be complimented because it moves our nation and the future looks bright. However, there are times when this craze for money goes a notch higher to a level where it stinks! It is getting rich by all means, no matter the destruction that you leave in your wake!

Money is all you need, no matter how you acquire it. This is a society that worships money and wealth, regardless of how you get there. At times, men and women like me in our higher institutions of learning and also our so-called hustlers, at times we feel guilty for lacking in chums. In this country, it is the size of your wallet that talks the loudest, despite the fact that we all pretend that it does not. With money, you can pull yourself out of any tight corner with the law enforcers, albeit illegally, and you can get any service that you wish to!

Along Koinange Street, Luthuli Avenues and now in some leafy suburbs of Nairobi, under the cover of darkness and at times under the tranquility of the day, under the guise of massage parlors the hustle for money goes a notch higher. Around the Simmerz Club along Kenyatta Avenue whenever lights beam the city, the trade gets clearer. Those who claim to be morally correct can get chocked to death at the site of females skimpily dressed, soliciting for sex from whoever gets tempted enough! Those in the trade justify it by giving us that cliché that jobs are hard to come by in this republic. Even honest and morally sound ways of earning money are now hard to get!

Sex is traded for money and all manner of Kenyans and even foreigners play the game; the married, college/university ladies and men, salaried and casual laborers and the big men and women of the society are deep in the web! To some it is a form of employment under the cliché that, jobs are now hard to come by and economic times are at an all-time hard.

Our pastors have coined the ‘panda mbegu’ initiative. Courtesy of this latest ‘innovation’ by members of the cloth, Kenyans can get all manner of spiritual needs attended to! Miracles to overnight richness, cures to chronic diseases, domestic fights, success in education, securing jobs and now a confirmation to whether one’s name is in the Book of Life, are all happening! Churches have been turned to money-minting endeavors whereby religious fanatism has replaced the sobriety that Jesus Christ instilled in the church! Pastors are apparently performing miracles to cure all sorts of afflictions that Kenyans are faced with! Churches and tents for worship are springing up in all corners of the city! Gospel of prosperity is the definition by most of these pastors, never mind that they are suffocating both willing and desperate Kenyans, by the panda mbegu scheme! But this church game is an endeavor of willing parties, and money is at the root of it all!

It is the greed and unquenchable thirst for money by our pastors and fellow Kenyans that has given birth to some unprecedented fanatism in the name of spreading the holy Gospel. Even in our mosques, radicalization has slowly seeped in, at the exchange of some little coins. Even some sheikhs have admitted it that it is indeed taking place and our youths are easily lured into, due to the moneyed-benefits that come with it. Now, when you see that our places of worship are under siege from the lust for money and sanity is slowly disappearing through their windows, then the nation is in deep trouble!

Our politicians are money-bags and the loudest shouts belong to the deepest pockets! They dish out money during the campaigns and in exchange we give them our votes! They get the opportunity to loot the public coffers and get ready for the next elections! Accusations of money laundering and even drug-related deals have not once but severally been linked up to part of our political class, yet we give them our votes, all in the name of democracy!

As a nation, we kill our loved ones, turn holy pulpits into money-minting enterprises, con and shed innocent blood and other ill means, all in a bid to get rich! Yes, money even from the Biblical perspective is laden with evil-ways to get it. Remember, Judas Iscariot sold our savior for 30 pieces of silver! But then, there all always honest ways of hitting it big; sports, well paying and morally and legally correct jobs, lotteries and all. But a part of our society has chosen to walk the short and wrong route to riches! This is sickening, yet we all pretend not to see it!

We must always remain ambitious to get rich and improve our lives, but should be within the confines of morality and law. Let us not get chocked in our churches, mosques, and socio-political spheres of our lives. If we lose our sobriety to this lust and greed, then our tomorrow slowly dies in the noose capitalism. Our society tomorrow disappears into doubt, even though the republic grows old. Remember, a country exists only in a society!

The Kenyan society must remain sober in her quest to get rich and live the good lives. We should always respect and look up to Kenyans who make an honest living, but we too must scathe and speak against those of us who make dishonest and immoral money and blossom in riches! You work hard, smart and efficient if you wish, then you get the sweet results.

Let us not worship ill gotten money and riches!!

KIZUNGUMKUTI CHA UGATUZI!

Mengi yamesemwa kufuatia miswada miwili katika Mbunge ya Seneti, inayowalenga magavana na kwa lugha ya mtaani, ‘kuwatia adabu’. Lakini je, kunayo mengi ambayo wabunge na masenei hawawaambii wakenya?

Baada ya Gavana wa Kaunti ya Embu, Martin Wambora kutimuliwa mamlakani,vita hivi vimechukua mwelekeo mpya. Magavana wamekataa kufika mbele ya tume hii licha ya kutakiwa kufanya hivyo na ata kunena ya kwamba hawawajibiki kwa mbunge ya Seneti, mbali kwa mbunge za kaunti. Kwa upande mwingine, maseneti na wabunge wameahidi kuwatia adabu kwa kupitisha miswada ya:

                    :kuyaondoa mataji ya His Excellency,

                    :Kutopeperusha bendera ya taifa kwenye magari yao ya shughuli za kirasmi

                     kama magavana, kati ya mengine mengi. Swali ni je, haya yote ni uwajibikaji wa kikazi na kwa majukumu yao kikatiba?

Huku maseneta wakijitayarisha kujadili miswada hii, na kulingana na jinsi mambo yalivyo, kuipitisha, kama taifa na watu wake, tunafaa kujsahilii kimoyo, kuyawaza na kuamua kuhusu yote haya yanayofanyika katika ulingo wa kisiasa. Kunao mvutano baina ya magavana, maseneta na wabunge. Mbunge zetu katika kaunti zote 47, magavana na maseneta wanaomajukumu  makubwa kikatiba na kimaadili, ya kutekeleza, mbali sio kupigana vita visivyomfaidi mkenya wa kawaida.

Yafaa tujenge na kuinua kaunti zetu kupitia ugatuzi, jinsi ambavyo Gavana wa Machakos, Dkt. Alfred Mutua anafanya. Tusigatue ufisadi na uporaji wa mali ya uma kwa kisingisio cha kuuendeleza na kutetea ugatuzi.

Ugatuzi ni Baraka kwa nchi yetu, haswa katika maeneo ambayo yametengwa na kubakia nyuma kimaendeleo, kama vile eneo ya Kaskazini mwa Kenya kati ya maeneo mengine. Lakini yafaa tujihadhari na uongozi mbaya na usiowajibika, ufisadi uliokithiri, uporaji wa mali uma na mali asili, na pia siasa sisizofaidi mkenya wa kawaida huko mashinani. Ugatuzi ni baraka ukitekelezwa kwa njia ifaayo, lakini pia ni laana iwapo utatumiwa vibaya.

Maswala ya usalama, muundo msingi, hospitali na sekta yote ya afya, Nyanja ya masomo, ukosefu wa maji, uhaba wa chakula cha kutosha na mengineyo mengi anayoitaji mkenya wa kawaida na nchi yote kwa jumla, ni maradhi ambayo tiba yake ni ugatuzi.

Tufuate sheria, maadili mema na wajibu wa kila mmoja kwa nchi na watu wake, ili ugatuzi ujenge Kenya na pia tuyaafikie malengo ya Ruwaza ya 2030. Sote tu ndugu wakenya na kaunti zote 47 zikinawiri, bila shaka Kenya yetu itasonga mbele!