[An SGR locomotive. The project is one of those that were alleged to be marred by major corruption. Photo/Courtesy]
After the dismal performance of the Jubilee government, the country needs to do a factory reset in our political sphere, from the President to the village MCA.
This is due to many factors, from the run away mega corruption to poor allocation of resources with the elected leaders playing favorites in terms of where development will be felt and where it will be heard but not seen.
The system has failed to setup controls within which the citizens can evaluate a project from inception, tendering process, disbursement of funds and lastly to inspect the project and confirm what was tendered is actually what was delivered.
For instance ,if a classroom is being built in a school there should be a bill of quantities which has a breakdown of the costs like a bag of cement, cost of sand per ton , cost of labour per day from where the community can compare to the market rates and through public participation air their views on how the project can be delivered efficiently.
This move will make the community take ownership of the project, offer free supervision and support to enable the project to be done in a timely manner and with good workmanship.
Most taxpayers' money are stolen at the inception part of a project whereby a leader crafts up a project where they already have a contractor in mind (tenderpreneur) who will give them a kickback or fund their campaigns .
Some people have argued that a factory reset was done by the electorate in the 2002 elections but there was a slight to no difference in terms of development. I agree with this position and believe that if there are controls established with regards to all Kenyan projects at inception, implementation and completion there will be less instances of white elephants that serve no purpose to the economy.