On May 9, Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu wrote a disturbing article on representation of the people and allocation of national resources to various regions. According to him, Mt Kenya region is suffering from what he described as “unfair political representation”.
In an attempt to prove his case, he picked Balambala, a constituency I represent. He pointed out that I was elected with 9,000 votes while my colleague from Ruiru, Simon Kinga’ra, got 108,000 votes.
Ngunjiri argued that Mt Kenya suffers unequal resource distribution. He said Kiambu county received Sh9 billion in devolved funds this year while Turkana county received a similar amount and a further Sh3 billion from the Equalisation Fund. He said Turkana has approximately one million people while Kiambu has approximately 2.5 million hence the Mt Kenya county should have received more.
His argument ignores among others Kenya’s history and constitutional provisions. On representation, his reasoning is hinged purely on the one-man-one-vote formula. This versus one-kilometre-one-vote debate came up during the drafting of the 2010 constitution and when the Andrew Ligale-led Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission was looking at the constituency boundaries.
After wide consultation and collection of views the current formula on representation and sharing of revenue was arrived at. These are the facts the MP chose to ignore. Ngunjiri cleverly chose to ignore the thorny issue of marginalisation of the entire Northeastern region and other arid and semi-arid areas since Independence.
He chose to ignore the fact that ASALs have historically been neglected in resource allocation, infrastructure development, social service delivery and economic transformation. And that is why presently, there is no way one can compare Kiambu's wealth and development with any ASAL county.
Marginalisation dates back to colonial times when government policy was informed by imperatives of containment. Most areas were designated as closed districts where movement in and out was strictly regulated. That territory now constitutes the counties of Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Tana River, Lamu, Samburu and Kajiado.
This approach continued well after Independence and in some cases the situation worsened. Sessional Paper No 10 of 1965 on African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya institutionalised marginalisation of ASALs in post-independent Kenya.
National economic development strategies were focused towards agriculture, investing resources in the so-called high potential areas. There was a deliberate policy choice to starve the ASALs of resources. And, as a result, they ended up with the poorest indicators in all spheres of social and economic development.
The areas lacked physical and social infrastructure, were poorly integrated into the national economy, and local citizens felt isolated and alienated from the rest of the country.
As these regions suffered, the others continued to blossom. Ngunjiri is well aware that the vision of equal opportunities for every Kenyan in every corner of the country was also blurred by the rewarding of political cronyism, particularly in access to public offices and resources. Residents of ASALs have had little or no participation in political leadership and thus no opportunity to influence policy and actions in their favour.
The 2010 Constitution and related laws came to correct these wrongs. It is the provisions of the new Constitution that the MP is now rubbishing. He is an advocate of poor governance that characterised the country’s recent history.
He should read and understand Articles 56 on affirmative action aimed at redressing historical marginalisation, effectively providing constitutional backing to strategies for addressing the historical marginalisation of the ASAls and bringing them to par with the rest of the country.
He should also read and understand Article 174 that enumerates objects of devolved government that include protecting and promoting the interests and rights of minorities and marginalised communities and to ensure equitable sharing of national and local resources throughout Kenya.
The unjust development that was brought by unfair resource distribution over the years gave birth to the Equalisation Fund enshrined in the new Constitution. The Sh3 billion additional fund for Turkana Ngunjiri is complaining about falls under this fund.
The MP should read and understand that this fund is primarily meant to uplift regions that over the years have been neglected by the State. Chapter 12 of the 2010 Constitution on public finance, Article 204 (2) clearly states that the national government shall use the Equalisation Fund only to provide basic services including water, roads, health facilities and electricity to marginalised areas to the extent necessary to bring the quality of those services in those areas to the level generally enjoyed by the rest of the nation, so far as possible.
Or would he have us believe that health, roads, water, electricity and the likes in Kiambu, or Nyeri, are the same as let’s say Turkana, Garissa or Mandera counties?
The MP selectively ignored the fact that most of the counties in Mt Kenya region are actually in urban areas, some a stone's throw away from the capital city of Nairobi. They have since Independence benefitted from deliberate government investments in diversified economic activities.
On the other hand, Northeastern and several other far-flung regions have remained isolated as though they are not part of Kenya. Acquisition of a basic document like a national ID has been a nightmare for many young people in Northeastern.
In fact, successive governments have viewed issuance of national IDs to the people of Northeastern as a privilege. This on the other hand has affected voter registration and denied thousands of residents their constitutional right to participate in elections.
An MP is supposed to legislate, oversight the Executive as well as represent his/her constituents. This representation entails safeguarding the interests of your constituents in the manner provided for in the law. Incitement against a specific group or region through amateurish analysis veiled as national discourse cannot be representation.
An MP’s national mandate is to champion national cohesion through inclusivity as well as supporting the President’s agenda to ensure the success of the Big Four agenda and catapult meaningful grassroots development.
CDF allocation is purely done as per the law and the MPs have no role in its management. The overhaul of the legal regime was done through sufficient public participation as provided for in the constitution. The Commission on Revenue Allocation is guided by the law, a fact which the MP should respect.
Balambala MP