In the last few weeks there have been a lot of goofs and gaffes on the bottom-up economic model. There have also been scholarly articles and commentaries by economists espousing examples from the world, especially in Asia, on how the model was used to bring economic prosperity to citizens.
It’s noteworthy to mention that our nation has never been deficient in policy wonks and policies. Our shortcoming has been the inability to execute and implement policies in order to transform the lives of citizens.
Whereas bottom-up economics is being viewed as a new concept in Kenya, an analysis will show that we have been living with it for years.
A framework that epitomises bottom-up economics is the 2010 Constitution. Two crucial ingredients are required for the model to succeed. First, citizens must have the ability to make decisions and be involved in governance. This enables them to determine their needs and prioritise them. Second, resources are made available to the citizens to actualise their priorities.
The Constitution satisfies these two conditions. Three themes in the Constitution support bottom-up economics. First is the supremacy of the citizenry as captured in Article 1. This article places citizens at the centre of governance and bestows upon elected and appointed leaders a trusteeship. The leaders must be in sync with the needs and aspirations of the citizenry.
Second is civic participation. This has also been given prominence in the Constitution. Citizens must participate and be actively involved in any decision-making that touches on them. Third is devolution. Article 174(c) (d) (f) sums up bottom-up economics precisely. Devolution places resources close to the grassroots and gives the people the power to make decisions on the use of those resources.
It's clear that we don’t need any new economic models and political semantics in order to uplift Wanjiku. All we need is to implement the Constitution to the letter.
However political elites pose the greatest threat to the realisation and actualisation of the intents and objectives of devolution. Just as there is what is called ‘state capture’ at the national level, there has emerged an ‘elite capture’ at the county level.
In the run-up to the 2013 election, elites who knew the resources and the powers that will be in the hands of county governments schemed to be at the centre of this newfound largesse. They came with political shenanigans such as coalitions, sultanates and negotiated democracy. The aim was to stifle devolution and emasculate the ability of the citizenry to participate in governance.
Elected governors found themselves in the centre of a Mafioso-like political storm in which elected and non-elected elites were giving them directives on how to govern. These elites' objective was basically to control the governor and his executive to sing to their tune and place financial and human resources meant for public empowerment at their hands.
As a result of this political stand-off, most governors were faced with two choices. To either kowtow to the threat and intimidation from the elite and abandon their manifesto and programmes or ignore the elites and be at the centre of a political storm for five years and face a hostile elite in the ensuing election. Both choices spell doom for bottom-up economics as there is no conducive environment to attend to the aspirations of the citizenry.
Kenyans don’t need new models. Three things must be emphasised in order to realise the benefits of bottom-up economics in the nation. One, we must elect credible, competent, people-focused and independent-minded leaders into positions of power. Two, the citizens must protect governments from political elites that frustrate the aspirations of the people.
Three, the county governments must empower and facilitate the citizenry to enable them to participate in governance. In particular, the structures and institutions specified in the County Government Act, 2012 relating to decentralisation such as subcounty, ward and village administrations must be actualised and empowered to execute their constitutional roles.
Director, Corporate Leadership Solutions Ltd
