A prince had some monkeys trained to dance and being naturally great mimics of men's actions, they learnt fast and became great entertainers.
The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage.
The monkeys, at the sight of the nuts, forgot their dancing and became monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts bringing the dance to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience.
In the past few weeks, a number of governors have come out stating that they intend to run for senators of their counties in the August 9 election. The move is a little bit suspicious and Kenyans need to watch keenly.
For the avoidance of doubt, it’s their constitutional right to run for any seat that they desire, but is this move ethical? There should be a way of ensuring that those that run for office do not have a conflict of interest between their new office and their previous one.
Granted, governors know how county governments operate and would be the best people to offer oversight. Oversight of the counties and safeguarding devolution are the key roles of the Senate and those there must ensure that this is done.
Devolution has helped the country achieve a better distribution of public funds and ensure that areas that were left out due to partisan politics in the past benefit. Devolution in a nutshell is helping distribute the national cake in a more equitable manner than before, thus helping deal with various socioeconomic problems.
Our budgeting cycle overlaps a lot, especially in regards to auditing of previous years' spending. It is the job of the Senate to go over such audits and give a verdict on them while addressing queries raised by the Auditor General.
The audits for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years are yet to get to the Senate. This means that they are likely to be handled by the next Parliament after the August election.
This therefore raises a critical issue on governors who are seeking to be senators, since they are the ones who executed the budgets that the next Parliament is to handle. When the audits are brought to the Senate, it would be totally out of place for the former governors to probe those accounts that are as a result of their actions before.
In other words, such governors would be investigating themselves in case major queries are raised on their last two budgets. I do not think that this is what the Constitution envisaged when creating the Senate and system of devolution.
Wouldn’t there be a conflict if the new senators want to investigate corruption allegations by their own previous governments? By allowing them into the Senate, wouldn’t we be giving them an avenue to protect their sins from the time they were in office?
If you look at many countries, you are not likely to see people seeking to move from an executive position in a devolved system to join Parliament. Elective positions appear to have an upward mobility and in our local context, governors are seen to be above the Senate.
Despite its rich history spanning hundreds of years, the US has only seen 16 former governors seek to join the Senate. And none has tried joining the Senate in their own states after having served as governor.
Though the Constitution does not bar anyone from running for the different offices, this is probably an important debate to have. There should be a way of ensuring there is no conflict of interest when governing.
Probably as the country discusses possible future changes to the Constitution, this should be one of the things that we may need to look at. We cannot afford to have former governors going to Parliament to interfere with the oversight role of the Senate.
