The Shifting Centre.

The centre has not given. Yet. It is only a matter of time before it sinks in that politics in Kenya is not like politics in any of the Western democracies with a presidential system and a two-chamber parliament. This is not the United States; the Constituencies Development Fund does not have the same impact as the appropriation a single members of the US Congress can finagle through the United States's incredibly byzantine system. Power, that is, the power to spend, is moving away from the National Government to the devolved government.

In the United States and France, it is very easy, and affordable, for a constituent to travel to the nation's capital and bend his or her elected representative's ear. When they write, and when they have the power of the media behind them, constituents can affect how an elected representative acts in parliament. The written rules of the parliament can bestow or take away power from the elected representative. In Kenya, the reverse is starkly true. 

Kithure Kindiki and Aden Duale are slowly coming to realise that it is the erstwhile districts that are directly connected to the people. If a constituent cannot easily make it to Nairobi, the reverse is frequently true; it is why Kenya's Members of Parliament are elected and seem to fade away from the memories of their constituents. They rarely go home; they do not hold "surgeries" in their constituencies. When elections are held, few of them are re-elected because they are virtual strangers to the voters who sent them to Nairobi in the first place.

It is governors who the people get to see and hear. It is the decisions made by governors, in conjunction with their assemblies, that now have the greatest impact on the peoples' lives. Governors can re-build dispensaries, primary schools, county roads, drainage systems, sewers, street lights, and markets. Because they are there, governors can attend weddings (very rare in Kenya) or funerals (where Kenyan politics flourishes) without eating into their schedules. Unlike MPs, governors have offices within a short matatu distance from irate constituents; they can respond quickly. MPs are used to making promises they cannot keep and then hiding out in Nairobi until the matter is quickly swept under the carpet. Governors - the good ones - will respond in a way that the constituents can appreciate.

Kenyan MPs are not smart enough to append their names to Bills that will have an impact on the lives of their constituents. They are busy trying to make the Other Side Look Bad through petty politicking without thinking of the next election. They are too busy lining their pockets as fast as they can to even think about the business of representing the interests of their constituents in Parliament. Meanwhile, even the poor governors, are leasing ambulances, cleaning drainage systems, rebuilding roads and bridges, building "people's" parks, wooing "investors" and doing all those things that MPs used to do. They are the face of politics at the grassroots. They have become the new peoples' champions. If the MPs cannot shape up and come up with a new game plan, they are toast. The Eleventh Parliament may be that last Parliament to matter when it comes to "optics" and visibility. Its members can thank the likes of Alfred Mutua, Ali Hassan Joho, Josephat Nanok and Martin Wambora.