logo
ADVERTISEMENT

EKURU AUKOT: Devolution is more than just paying salaries

You have a national leadership that is not supervising devolved units as per the Constitution

image
by LUKE AWICH

News05 June 2024 - 04:13
ADVERTISEMENT

In Summary


  • The idea is that this is a developmental Constitution. It is not about salaries and recurrent expenditures to individuals.
  • President William Ruto is the worst President to supervise devolution of services to each and every part of Kenya because he does not believe in the Constitution anyway.
Thirdway Alliance Party leader Ekuru Aukot.

Devolution was about bridging the gap between various regions of Kenya but, most importantly, it was about delivering functions and services to every part of the Republic of Kenya.

If you read Article 6 (3) of the Constitution it speaks specifically to those words: that you must devolve services to each and every part of the Republic of Kenya.

The idea is that this is a developmental Constitution. It is not about salaries and recurrent expenditures to individuals.

Of course, what is happening in most of these counties is that we are basically electing the wrong people who do not understand the Constitution and development.

If you look at the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution where functions are divided between the national and devolved governments, resources are supposed to be channeled to those functions.

These guys don’t do that.

The bigger problem is at the national level, because you have got a national leadership that is not supervising or calling the devolved units as per the Constitution – probably because they don’t believe in the Constitution in the first place. After all, the President opposed it.

President William Ruto is the worst President to supervise devolution of services to each and every part of Kenya because he does not believe in the Constitution anyway.

We need to start at the top. We need to have a national leader, a President who says I believe in the Constitution of Kenya. This is what the Constitution intends, the spirit and the letter of the Constitution.

But if we have people who don’t believe in the Constitution then it will be difficult to achieve real devolution.

That is why Ruto will never supervise counties as a national leader who swore to protect the Constitution of Kenya including devolution; not only to protect the devolution but also to realise the spirit of devolution.

That has not happened, and the reason it is not happening is because of the leadership we have in Kenya.

Every country’s prosperity depends on leadership, where the leadership takes the country. In the absence of that, it is just theory.

Third Way Alliance party leader spoke to the Star


ADVERTISEMENT

logo© The Star 2024. All rights reserved