Every person in leadership wants to be more powerful than the other leading to unnecessary fights all the time.
The effect is directly felt by the common citizen who is waiting for the delivery of services from the people he elected. Counties across the country have recently been caught up in leadership scandals ranging from corruption allegations to impeachment plots by MCAs.
This challenge is also witnessed in the national level where MPs and Senators want to showcase their superiority over one another. I am not concerned about who fights who but greatly concerned by the outcome of the fights.
Last month, service delivery in Kisumu County were grounded because their leaders could not agree over the House Business. The result was a delay of important Bills and motions in the County Assembly.
The County Assembly had suspended the leader of majority and his deputy which left a vacuum in the House Business Committee responsible for the preparation of the assembly’s calendar.
This means that there is a high probability that the House will not beat the June 30 deadline for tabling and discussions of the County Budget for the next financial year if the Majority Leader position is not filled as soon as possible.
Kisumu County is not alone. Two months ago, the Kisii County Assembly also ousted the Majority leader and his deputy for allegedly being behind the woes that have befallen the house. This has also led to the delays in passing the amendments in the County Bursary Fund to allow pupils from poor families to access their fees.
The current situation is that they have not resolved their differences and the matter is still in court. I am still wondering how they are going to discuss the County Budget for the next financial year since the deadline is drawing close.
The situation that is being experienced in these two counties will paralyse development of our counties and nation at large and calls for immediate remedies.
In my view, we need constitutional amendments to streamline the functionality of each County government organ if we need devolution to work to our expectations. Counties should not be wasting time and resources engaging in non-developmental issues.