Leaders have relegated county development

In the 1970s, then president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s philosophy of Harambee (pulling together for a course) dominated the development discourse not just in the country, but also within the development agencies.

The philosophy helped build many schools that were referred to as “Harambee Schools.” Their name reflected the fact that they were built by a collaborative effort of the citizens. That spirit is dying.

As a young lad at the time, we were the workhorses. We carried water on our heads from nearby rivers to development sites, used our nimble feet to make mud that walled our classes, and every Friday we carried cow dung to school, which we mixed with clay to smear the floors.

This, we were told, would chase away jiggers, and it did. At the time terminologies like child-labour were non-existent. We got used to working hard and never complained. In retrospect, Harambee made us who we are today.

In the 1980s came the Nyayo philosophy, which was premised on following the footsteps of our founding father. It meant that Harambee would continue to drive our development. It did not.

Instead, there emerged a class of citizens who came to be known as tenderpreneurs. Companies and business people tendered for government work to implement development initiatives.

The change had a significant impact on citizens who began to believe that government was responsible for doing everything under the sun.
It was not uncommon to see a man ask for the government to help (serikali isaidie) bring back his wife who has left him due to an abusive marriage.

The Kibaki administration did not have any development slogan, but it was characterised by devolution of resources to constituencies under the 2003 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Act.

The Grand Coalition government of 2008-2013 did not have any development slogan, but its successful implementation of the 2010 Constitution ensured that resources would be devolved, marking the end of marginalisation.

Ordinary citizens did not, however, understand what their role in development would be.

It is for this reason that we begin to realize that in spite of devolving billions worth of resources, development remains at the back seat.

Last week’s revelation that Eshianini Primary School in Butere, Kakamega, lacks learning facilities is a sad realization that we are not developing.

That 405 students would be sharing two dilapidated mud buildings classes with earth floors that entertain jiggers, dirty latrines, and snakes slithering through the gaping holes in this day, in the second decade of the 21st century is a national shame.

This is going on when as CDF resources lie idle in the bank as leaders ponder when to allocate the same to Eshianini Primary School.

In my view, this is a classic case of failure in leadership and lack of conscience. Yet last August the people of Eshianini elected five local human beings to represent them but none can remove his or her shoes to build eight mud classes and smear them well to protect children from jiggers and snakes as we did in the 1970s without much resources required.

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Is it too difficult to be creative in development? Who among the five elected leaders, the Member of County Assembly (MCA), the Member of Parliament (MP), the Woman’s Representative, the Senator and the Governor is responsible for development?

These are fundamental development questions that the public must debate, especially now as leaders arrogate themselves powers to increase their pay while there are many Eshianinis in virtually every constituency.

I discuss Eshianini today because it was in the news, but we know it is not the only school that is undergoing such a harrowing experience.

The proverb “too many cooks spoil the broth” perhaps explains why our development is stuck yet we have so much representation.

In my view, and in the absence of job descriptions for our many leaders, we need to drastically reduce the number to a bare minimum.

It takes good leadership, a creative mind and a desire to help people advance to execute effective development.

Although we often use resources as an excuse for inaction, they are secondary.