A deer is drinking at a river, admiring its beautiful antlers. He then notices how small and weak his legs look. Just then out of nowhere, a hunter approaches and shoots an arrow.
The deer runs away into the woods and realises that it was thanks to his legs that he survived. While he is looking at his legs, his antlers get caught in the trees. The hunter catches up to the deer and kills it.
There are many ways to look at this story and equate it to some of the things we have seen happening in Kenya this month. But more specifically, it can help us think critically about the ongoings in Meru county.
Last week, Meru MCAs carried out an unprecedented act of impeaching Governor Kawira Mwangaza, barely four months after assuming office. The MCAs claim that she should leave office for alleged gross misconduct, abuse of office and gross violation of the Constitution and county laws.
The MCAs accuse the governor of nepotism, illegal appointments, unlawful dismissals, usurpation of constitutional and statutory functions, incitement, bullying, vilification and misleading campaigns against other leaders.
Granted, the MCAs have the constitutional duty of oversight over the executive. But the issues in question sound more political than legal, with the latter being what should guide an impeachment process.
It is insincere for the MCAs to want to subject Meru county to another gubernatorial election without giving the sitting, and validly elected governor, the opportunity to serve her people. Unless they are working for the candidates that Mwangaza beat in the last election.
As the matter heads to the Senate, what precedent will the senators set if they uphold the impeachment? Being an independently elected governor, Mwangaza has an uphill task to bridge the divide.
While we must ensure that we keep governors accountable, it is also important that we do not abuse the Constitution as we have seen in the past. The impeachment process in the country has been more political than legal.
Since the election of the first county governments in 2013, some impeachment motions have gone through, but only two governors have left office as the Senate or the courts have dismissed the rest.
While this has been going on, the residents of these counties are the ones who have been left to suffer as the governors spend their time fighting the impeachments instead of working on service delivery.
We have witnessed a situation where governors have been threatened and intimidated by MCAs and senators. Some have spent most of their time in Nairobi meeting senators in the name of oversight where they are constantly being vetted.
The law has proven to be discriminatory and is being used by senators and MCAs to fight political battles. Some have been accused of using their offices to blackmail governors for favours.
We have seen senators and MCAs at times working hard to deny governors the resources they need to deliver. Mostly because some of them are in political competition with the same governors and just want them to fail, forgetting it is mwananchi who will suffer.
Kenyans have seen and enjoyed the fruits of devolution despite the obvious teething problems that have been experienced. Kenyans have seen better services, better roads and development in every aspect of their lives over the last nine years.
Devolution is a governance system that envisages bringing government services closer to the people and giving them the first say in the running of public affairs, more so those that immediately and directly impact on their lives.
It is therefore unfortunate that turf wars between the implementers of devolution continue to be a threat to this noble cause. The far we have come, we cannot allow these, sometimes petty, turf wars to derail the benefits of devolution to mwananchi.
If the senators vote to save the governor, she must also tone down on rhetoric and avoid the confrontational approach she has used to lead the county. This is not the time for politics, but rather the time to diligently serve Meru residents. This is true for the governor as it is for the MCAs.
