This blogger has a spectacularly dim view of the political classes. It hits its nadir when a politician becomes an "elected representative" of the people. It turns to hostility when the said elected representative attempts to speak with erudition on matters beyond his competence, intellect or jurisdiction. But this blogger accepts the elected representative as a necessary evil, even though they are more and more evil than necessary these days.
The role of an elected representative, after the lofty ones of "representation, legislation and oversight" is to mediate conflicting interests so that they do not turn into violent disagreements that flare up every time someone or some group wants to flex its muscles. It is why many still believe politics to be the last true "calling" where the people come first and the elected representative comes second. Anyone who would stand in public and articulate an idea that is held in common by a community must surely feel the need to do so in addition to the narcissistic tendencies we have come to associate with those of that persuasion. That person must feel that he or she is the only one who could defend the interests of his community and negotiate with his peers for the best deal for his community. Even in Kenya where faith in the elected classes continues to suffer ignominy after ignominy, there is still a hope, diminishing it is true, that the elected classes will stop fattening their wallets and start fattening the people's wallets.
It is why the whole debate about devolution needs to be re-calibrated. Members of County Assemblies are the closest to grassroots politicians that Kenyans will ever have. We have already made the error of electing and nominating largely semi-literate men and women to these assemblies; it is an error we cannot rectify until 2017. We cannot however, allow them to behave like the perfidious local authorities that have gone the way of the A-Trak. It is shocking to read stories in the press about the one billion shillings MCAs spent in 2013/2014 on travel. A billion shillings divvied up between around 1,800 people is an obscene sum, especially when thousands of Kenyans are at risk of starvation, hundreds of Kenyans are at risk of water-borne diseases, and tens of thousands of children are malnourished. It is an obscene sum when public retirees have to go for months without their pensions.
Kenyans are united four-square behind devolution; they are wary, though, that it is about to be hijacked by ex-councillors determined to recreate their glory days of dubious tenders and rampant graft. Kenyans are placing their faith in the Controller of Budget and the Auditor-General and when these two come up short, in the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and ultimately, the President. Kenyans do not want devolution to be strangled or watered down; but they do not want the same graft-related problems of the national government to be replicated in the county. The Devolution Conference in Kwale is valuable; it would have sent a powerful signal if only the conference facilities were paid for out of public funds and each governor and his vast entourage paid their way out of their own pockets. That no one thought of this speaks volumes about their intentions with our money.
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