Poor facilitation of MCAs and ineffective Senate coordination have undermined oversight of governors, a report has said.
The report by Mzalendo Trust says MCAs are not well supported and the multi-tiered oversight of county administration has resulted in the loss of county funds and promoted impunity.
On facilitation of MCAs, the report says the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has capped the monthly salary of MCAs at Sh140,000 plus Sh91,000 for their support staff.
It said this is not adequate for quality work.
“The [...] responsibilities vested in the MCA call for facilitation of stated roles to enable a member to perform their functions effectively,” the report reads.
The report assessing the 10-year operation of county assemblies indicates facilitation of MCAs needs to be enhanced through better monthly remuneration, wellpaid competent staff as well as physical offices in their wards.
“Such facilitation may include: physical offices in the wards, facilitation of movement to enable the MCA to interact with the electorate, personal staff to assist in research and consultation, and general logistical, technical, and administrative support,” the report reads.
The report found MCAs’ facilitation differs from one county to the next.
In Siaya, for example, the assembly has built offices for MCAs in all the wards, while in other counties, the assembly provides MCAs with money for rental space.
According to the report, the Sh91,000 allowed by the SRC for hiring support staff is being abused by many grassroots politicians to hire partisan supporters who may not be qualified for the job.
“[The provision of MCA staff] in practice [is] used to reward supporters, with little regard to their professional skills, experience, or technical capacity to serve; which has an inevitable impact on the quality of work,” the report reads.
“[The] frequent change of ‘partisan staff’ has led to complexities in their management from a human resource perspective. Some county assemblies have resorted to providing MCAs with the budget and allowing them to hire and pay directly as part of MCAs’ monthly benefits.”
Baringo assembly speaker Vincent Kemboi said MCAs essentially work at the mercy of county executives as they are not properly paid and this diminishes quality of their oversight.
“MCAs are paid Sh140,000 to oversight governors who earn close to Sh1 million and the CEC and chief officers who earn Sh300,000 to Sh500,000. These executives tell MCAs to go slow in their work because they earn peanuts, and can be easily bought,” Kemboi said.
“In Baringo, as the assembly, we have to weigh what we pursue to oversight so we don’t annoy the governor because he may refuse to sign our monthly salary. We have to ask ourselves that if we go hard, will we be able to pay our bills at the end of the month?”
Wajir deputy speaker Abdisalan Mohamud said in Northeastern, clan politics has diluted oversight as governors only work with MCAs who are members of his clan, while the rest get marginalised.
“The issue of parties in Northeastern ends after
elections, as oversight only works based on the clans,”
he said.
