- Some of us have been arguing since before the passage and promulgation of the Constitution that we don’t need 47 counties, let alone 47 governors.
- While devolution was a thoughtful and necessary vehicle of development, impediments and undesirable side effects are now undoubtedly manifest.
Image: HANDOUT
The parade of governors going through impeachment proceedings in the Senate only indicates part of the problem with county governments, highlighting the urgent need for a more efficient governance system. This is the third time Mwangaza has faced an impeachment hearing before the Senate, and that alone speaks to why these proceedings are a waste of time and money.
Since 2013, we have had 11 governors and four deputies, including Monda, impeached by MCAs. However, only two—former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu)—were successfully removed from office. The rest were either rescued by the Senate or the courts. With that failure/success rate, it is no surprise that many of these governors and deputy governors continue to engage in corruption with impunity.
The senators voted to hold two of the three charges brought against Mwangaza by the Meru county assembly, and with that, Mwangaza is gone as a governor.
We continue to learn or remind ourselves of several takeaways from these futile impeachment exercises.
First, Mwangaza became the third governor to be removed from office through impeachment since the counties were established in 2013.
Second, we don’t need many of these governors at all. Some of us have been arguing since before the passage and promulgation of the Constitution that we don’t need 47 counties, let alone 47 governors. While devolution was a thoughtful and necessary vehicle of development created by the 2010 Constitution, impediments and undesirable side effects, such as exacerbation of bloated government, are now undoubtedly manifest, and something must be done about it.
The new constitution was promulgated 14 years ago. The urgency of revisiting it to assess its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement is now more pressing than ever. Action is needed to address the inefficiencies and corruption in both our national and county governments.
Now that President William Ruto has been spared being chased out of office by the short-lived Gen Z mini-revolution—ironically, thanks in large part to ODM leader Raila Odinga—it will serve the President well to seriously consider setting in motion the process to amend the constitution one more time.
While for some time, it appeared as though there was not much to happen in the country before the next elections, given how things have at least cooled down for now, there is an opportunity to do something—and that is assuming the President wants to do something beyond sticking a band-aid to a deep wound.
To be sure, Ruto is not out of the woods yet. He remains unpopular in key parts of the country, and lest one has been in a cave and unaware, there are many folks in the Mt Kenya region who want Ruto gone from State House as soon as possible, and in 2027 at the latest.
Their only dilemma, meaning those who want Ruto gone, is the same problems Democrats have had in the United States for a long time: having an octogenarian lead their ticket to certain defeat in November or finding a replacement. The argument for a long time was no one could replace President Joe Biden as the 2024 flagbearer, with nearly everyone dismissing the obvious choice, Vice-President Kamala Harris, as a non-starter and an easy candidate for Donald Trump to beat.
That was proven wrong the day after Biden stepped down as a candidate and was replaced by Kamala, who has been soaring in the polls to every naysayer’s surprise and more. So much so it is almost inevitable that she will be elected as the first woman and first black woman when Americans go to the polls in November.
Can someone emerge in Kenya to seriously challenge Ruto now that Raila has been “neutralised”? It is doubtful, but Ruto cannot take that for granted.
This is the time for Ruto to go back to the drawing board and chart a new pathway for his political survival beyond 2027. The key in that equation must be pushing for a referendum to fix things that must be fixed in the constitution.
Otherwise, the peril of him being rejected in 2027 remains high.