As Aden Bare Duale, a take-no-prisoner politician who makes no apologies in defending the Jubilee government to the hilt, hurled a barrage of invectives at Bomet Governor Isaac Kiprono Rutto, Deputy President (DP) William Samoei Ruto merely observed from the sideline. Duale, Leader of Majority in National Assembly, was in his usual element. And when the DP stood to address the crowd already incensed by Duale’s outburst, he appeared to pick the cue from his protégé: He too rammed into the pro-referendum crusaders and the Opposition head-on. “Their agenda is not about the push for more money but politics aimed at destabilizing Jubilee’s drive to implement its manifesto … They have a political agenda and they should just say that so that we can also roll up our sleeves and politick because we are also up to the task,” the DP thundered.
It would appear Duale and his boss referred to the same script, perhaps after a tryout.
History, an international newsmagazine observed recently, has a dark sense of humour – it lets us forget easily, effortlessly. We jump to a mistake from another, ominously. Yet we have no shame, no qualms about our memory lapse. We disregard history at our own peril; its wrath can be manic.
As a student at Eldoret’s Moi University 25 years ago, Duale, and perhaps thousands of other undergraduates in State universities at the time, were fortuitous beneficiaries of the District Focus for Rural Development (DFRD), one of the many ill-fated projects by the then President Daniel Arap Moi to close the chasm of inequality among districts. Duale was among a handful of students from hitherto boondocks northern Kenya to join the university at the time.
He must have been part of the student kindred that often lashed out at the government for political and economic crimes. Indeed, the 1980s and 1990s were years of revolt in Kenyan campuses. President Moi’s strong arm tactics drove students onto the streets, to demand more democratic space, fight tribalism and nepotism in public service, and clamour for better economic management of their country.
A quarter Century later, Duale, the de facto third most powerful person in the political rung of this country, joins the rank of Jubilee Coalition hawks in haste to place a wedge between Kenyans and constitutional reforms, in particular the favorite Devolution Revolution. This detrimental cabal believes that Devolution – the flagship plank of the 2010 Constitution – is an affront to Jubilee Coalition; a threat to its grasp on power. It draws House Speaker Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi, and senators Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet County) and Kithure Kindiki (Senate Leader of Majority).
Indeed, by their talk and deed, they appear to dampen Kenyans’ spirit for grassroots empowerment. They consider themselves – and act in that order – Jubilee’s last line of defence and thus unconsciously injure the image of their own government even more. They have, by design or otherwise, formed the adverse Axis of Impunity. Their stubbornness has neither ideology nor empirical standing; all they see is the apparition of the Opposition CORD in anything Devolution.
In fact they hardly cloak their serpentine hostility towards governors and pro- Referendum quarters. “Hii pesa sio ya mama yako bwana. Hii pesa si ya baba yako (Public funds don’t belong to your mother or father)” Duale told Rutto, the chair of the Council of Governors (CoG), although he later tried to explain this metaphorically.
Forty five-year old Duale rode to his powerful position principally due to the opportunistic realignment of the country’s tribal politics in the run-up to the last General Election and the strategic position of many Somalis from northern Kenya in important positions in government. He is now a critical player within the Jubilee power machine. He has both admirers and critics.
Inequality
While majority of Kenyans underpin Devolution, the foursome’s unrelenting onslaught on governors is prominent. But it is not just Devolution the cabal is fighting. Kenyans will recall the fight Murkomen, Muturi and Kindiki put up in an effort to destroy the Judiciary. It would appear they are so opposed to the values of the new Constitution that they are hell-bent to take the country back to the notorious Kanu era.
They are ready to seize Parliament to craft laws that render almost impotent the smooth operation of county governments. “The (National Assembly) has passed countless statutes and amendments that are blatantly unconstitutional. Most of these unconstitutional amendments are designed to undermine devolution and county governments,” senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi wrote in the Daily Nation last August.
This clique – the untouchables – appears ignorant of the trend World over, where administrations are devising various ways to haul less privileged communities or people from jaws of underdevelopment. Indeed, after the stillborn push for independence, Scotland is now readying itself for a wave of Devolution, a phrase coined in the year 1545 and which, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary is the “surrender of powers to local authorities by a central government …the decentralization of power, authority and resources”.
Inequality
As the next story shows, Devolution is critical because Kenya is a country of inequality. Some districts are apart in the level of development as light and day.
For instance, only 6% of the residents of Garissa County – the area MP Duale represents in Parliament – have secondary level of education and above. In fact, 74% of the area residents lack formal education, according to a study by the Society for International Development in partnership with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
And in Elgeyo Marakwet County, represented in the Senate by the 35-year old Murkomen, only 18% of area residents have secondary level of education. Three in every five people rely on “unimproved water sources”, euphemistic for unsafe water, according to the study, Exploring Ken
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