Citizens, the sovereign rulers, must be at the centre of governance
Article 174 of the Constitution recognises the right of communities to manage their own affairs and to further their development.
What you need to know:
- Chapter 11 of the Constitution elaborately provides for devolved governments.
- Article 174 outlines some elements of devolution as giving citizens the power of self-governance and enhancing their participation in the exercise of powers of the state and in making decisions that affect them
Since Africa’s independence, have citizens controlled their elected governments? Do they enjoy self-determination, self-rule, self-reliance and, therefore, prosperity?
A Zimbabwean peasant interviewed before Robert Mugabe’s re-election in 2013 replied: “Whether I vote or not, it doesn’t make a difference.”
In her book, The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision, Wangari Maathai argues that Africa’s masses are a disempowered lot. They tend to “leave (their) life in the hands of third parties, whether government, elected leaders or, in some cases, aid agencies and faith-based organisations”. Hence they are unable to participate in their own development, including expansion of their democratic space.
During the feudal era in Europe, the majority were similarly situated. The aristocracy exercised absolute power over its people.
Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged feudal absolutism. Their basic argument was that since all inhabitants of a polity could not exercise direct rulership over themselves, they ceded such authority to a sovereign. However, a social contract was negotiated between the sovereign and her subjects. The sovereign or government had to rule for the benefit of the subjects, failing which the citizens could withdraw the mandate bestowed upon rulers.
Article 1 of Kenya’s 2010 constitution embraces social contractarian philosophy in declaring: “All sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya… the people may exercise their sovereign power either directly or through their democratically elected representatives…”
Sovereign power
The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution describes the 14th function of county governments as: “ensuring and coordinating the participation of communities and locations in governance at the local level…” Hence the sovereign power of the people is to be exercised up to the lowest level of society, the grassroots.
Chapter 11 of the Constitution elaborately provides for devolved governments. Article 174 outlines some elements of devolution as giving citizens the power of self-governance and enhancing their participation in the exercise of powers of the state and in making decisions that affect them. Further, it recognises the right of communities to manage their own affairs and to further their development.
The County Governments Act, 2012 establishes structures of devolution. Specifically, sections 48 and 54(1) provide for such structures as may be provided for in county legislation. Sections 87-101 elaborately describe citizens’ participation, public communication and access to information and civic education.
In his book, Where is Uhuru? Reflection of the Struggle for Democracy in Africa, Issa G. Shivji lays bare the post-independence diminution of Africa’s citizenship. To restore peoples’ self-determination, Shivji posits that three essential cornerstones are indispensable.
Popular participation and popular power go beyond parliamentary democracy and party politics. Shivji states: “Politics is not simply a politics of (state) power, but rather the power of politics is where the masses are.” Popular power provides an antidote to unbridled state power; it is an expression of people’s sovereignty.
Popular livelihoods connote the equitable distribution of resources among citizens, thereby rescuing them from poverty through state agency and their self-reliance.
African stool
Wangari Maathai believes Africans can be saved from their socio-cultural, political and economic problems by symbolically adapting the three legs of the African stool. “The first leg represents democratic space, where rights – whether human, women’s, children’s or environmental – are respected. The second leg symbolises the sustainable and accountable management of natural resources both for those living today and for those in future… The third leg stands for… ‘Cultures of peace’. These take the form of fairness, respect, compassion, forgiveness, recompense and justice.”
Between 2013-2017, Makueni County established a third tier of government in accordance with Kenya’s constitution and other laws. This was to shadow the national and county governments through expression of people’s sovereign power.
The peoples’ government (silikali wa mwenenthi) consists of a three-tier system that provides for their effective participation in decision-making and advancing accountable government.
This community governance structure comprises; first, development forums and their elected development committees at various levels (3643 Areas/Villages, 377 Clusters, 60 Sub-wards, 6 Sub-counties, 1 County level entity); second, Project Management Committees (PMCs) at individual project site elected by project beneficiaries; and third, Project Sustainability Committees (PSCs).
Currently the county is in the process of forming a Local Development Organisation whose aim is to aggregate key community associational life and development committees to promote holistic home-grown governance.
Key functions of the development entities include: guaranteeing equitable distribution of development; ensuring inclusiveness in decision-making including vetting of bursaries and scholarships for needy students, recipients of grantees of concessionary loans, and candidates for special public service employment; policy formulation; public participation regarding county vision, plans and budgets (for example in one year about 100,000 are engaged in budget making); enhancing service delivery through social accountability (no contractor can be paid before the citizens PMC authorises alongside other official approvals); promotion of volunteerism in development (mwethya wa maendeeyo) in various development sectors such as water, community health strategy, community agricultural extension work among others; establishing community action programme and plans; citizen-government dialogues with children, youth, women, PWDs, traders and people living with HIV Aids, among others.
Transparency and accountability
Further, government transparency and accountability is enhanced through the county website that avails budgets, plans, audit reports etc. to the citizens, and through open contracting portal (https://opencontracting.makueni.go.ke/ui/index.html). The portal details procurement activities from the planning, tendering, evaluation of the bids, actual award of contract, and implementation of the contract.
On October 20, 2020, Makueni County became a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Other strategies aimed at democratising government include performance management and developing an ISO standard.
Some challenges confronting the people’s government are: scarce resources to implement an elaborate people’s government; inadequate citizens’ capacity to uptake the new form of governance; resistance of people’s power by some officials; competition between the county based development forums and the provincial administration.
Further, the level of public participation and other civic engagements has been compromised by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The above experiences underscore the reality that for devolution to take root in a county and country, citizens must be robustly engaged in government. They own their government as opposed to the rulers lording it over them.
