AJUOK: The public debt question: Why must marginalised areas pay?

Senate Majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot is prone to regular emotional outbursts on the floor of the House, but he is undoubtedly one of the smartest, most articulate debaters in the entire Parliament.

Being a young leader with a newer worldview, and having President William Ruto’s ear means that at a certain level, the country’s progressive and liberal sections can depend on him to counterbalance the conservative and ignorant wing of the Kenya Kwanza administration, represented by characters such as Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.

Last week, during a heated debate on the Division of Revenue Bill, Senator Cheruiyot said something interesting, which made me reflect deeply.

The Kericho senator accused Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro of allocating Sh14 billion to his (Nyoro’s) constituency for roads in the last financial year, when Nyoro was still chairman of the National Assembly Budget Committee What the senator said next is the subject of my attention today.

The Senate Majority leader and I totally agree: if the country borrows heavily to fund development, these funds are allocated in a skewed manner, and this raises a moral question around of repayment of the national debt.

Cheruiyot suggested, almost in jest, that a county such as his own, Kericho should just calculate the net effect of the national debt and repay only its fair share of the allocation.

This leaves undeserving beneficiaries, such as the alleged case of Kiharu, to carry the bigger burden.

I totally love this line of thought, because a sharply divided nation, such as Kenya, needs uncomfortable conversations like this, to focus on the years of marginalisation of certain regions since Independence.

Marginalisation and state neglect are difficult to legislate against, but the fact that the entire country must foot the bill for skewed allocation of the national cake poses a moral question: why and how this has been allowed to go on for so long.

For a week earlier this month, I visited Homa Bay county, seized by a flurry of activity as it prepared to host the Madaraka Day fete this weekend. The county will also host the Devolution Conference in August. From the grassroots, I encountered bittersweet tales.

There is bitterness following long years of state neglect perpetuated by successive regimes since Independence, and yet you can sense the newfound joy some stalled projects from years ago are now receiving attention from both the national and county governments.

When I visited, Homa Bay looked like a giant construction site.

Works on the Raila Odinga Stadium, Homa Bay, strangely abbreviated to ROSH, was proceeding at lightning speed to beat the Madaraka hosting deadline.

In the meantime, senior government officials were on the ground to oversee progress of the ongoing tarmacking of the 74-kilometre Mbita-Sindo- Magunga-Sori road, a perennial eyesore on those shores.

Residents also cheered the sparkling-new Mfangano Ring Road.

As if that were not enough, traders were in high spirits over the forthcoming new fish market, a far cry from previous lakeshore trading that diminished the dignity of such a critical economic sector. And here we must pose the moral questions.

 Lake Victoria has always been facing largely untapped economic potential and obviously not meeting its desired status as a massive transportation and integration hub for East Africa’s goods and people.

Even from a security standpoint, one Nyanza city on the lake should have been hosting a huge Navy Base, with all attendant facilities but it hasn’t, 62 Madaraka Days later!

It is easy for politicians, especially vociferous ones from the Mt Kenya region, to dismiss the attention given to Luo Nyanza by the current regime, as merely the quid pro quo effect of cooperating with Raila Odinga’s ODM.

But it is important to note that every region deserves the development and progress that three presidents from that region have given their people in massive infrastructure projects, growth of the agricultural sector, and a functional economy.

Otherwise, the fish trader of Sindo, riding his motorcycle through dam-sized potholes on murram road, to get to the nearest market, has no moral obligation to service the national debt in the same manner as the tea farmer in Mathira, who has the luxury of using smooth tarmac to get his produce to the nearest collection centre in its freshest form.

This is not a matter of broad-based governance or cooperation with a sitting government, although it may not seem so to leaders from regions used to being pampered for producing presidents.

This is a right that should extend to all Kenyans.

The advent of devolution was partly meant to remedy some of these issues. In fact, Senator Cheruiyot delivered his argument during a debate in which the Senate was demanding counties receive Sh456 billion in equitable share of revenue in the new financial year.

In the last financial year, the Senate had proposed a little more than Sh400 billion, which the National Assembly rejected, forcing a mediation that settled on Sh387 billion?

 If the Senate succeeds in getting Sh456 billion passed, it would be a major milestone for devolution, because the revenue share would pass the Sh400 billion mark for the first time.

 The Senate has already acquitted itself quite admirably as a House more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people than its counterpart, the National Assembly. In fact, there is a running joke among senators that the national assembly is where Senate bills go to die.

In its role as the upper house and watchman of the people, the Senate should put its foot down and force pro-devolution legislation that ultimately minimises state control of public resources and allocates more to counties, so that one constituency doesn’t end up receiving Sh14 billion while others receive nothing, due to clear gaps in the law.

I would love to see an overview of national debt and its development allocation over the past few decades. It would be intriguing to see the effect of the decision points, vis-à-vis the identity of the man sitting in State House, as a way of rationalising spending public resources against the manner in which each beneficiary was identified.

I think this would be a good report for each Kenyan to read and internalise.

At that point, we can discuss at the national level the sustainability of national taxation and borrowing, which benefit only a few regions of the country.

 We can conclude by reminding pampered regions that eradicating their self- entitlement will obviously be painful.

 I am reminded of the days when former President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned the refurbishment of the Port of Kisumu and the Kenya Shipyards Limited in Kisumu, prompting some Mt Kenya leaders to remark that “Uhuru has taken all our development to Luos”.

 For people like this, all other regions merely exist to watch development happening in a single region.

But the joke is on them, because the new Kenya is asking the hard questions, such as why all of us can be here just to fund the raging appetites of others as we get marginalised forever!