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Real Devolution Comes With A Challenge To Perform

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As the new Kenyan Governments(yes governments) settle into office, I would like to wish them well and implore the leaders to serve those who elected them. This obviously means those who voted for and against them because it is from the net total that they sit in their respective offices today. Here at RealTalkWithEric we will simplify devolution so we can all understand what it means and be able to constructively engage the government in developing ourselves, communities, the county and the country as a whole.

Having said that, I’d like to delve into our new devolved system of government that is generating a lot of excitement. What we are seeing is a new dispensation that has brought government closer to the people. What the people need to do now is to understand government so that they can take advantage of it to prosper. Government in itself is not prosperity and very few ever prosper from government the world over other than through corruption. Prosperity is an individual’s effort, investment, persistence and ideas.

One of the arguments that I have heard is that devolution will bring funds to the counties. This is true but the funds will be of no use to the individuals who sit back and wait to be fed. One has to prepare his/herself to participate in the County economy to benefit from these devolved funds. I will use Kisumu county as an example since it is the county that I understand the most. If you are a university graduate who has not had gainful employment for the last five or more years, it may be time for you to stop looking and apply yourself differently. Get with your county representative and seek some county land to lease for food production. The county government has access to huge parcels of land that can be placed on leasehold. Also encourage your county commissioner to push the county government to allocate some grants to unemployed university graduates who want to invest in farming. I would encourage the graduates to form a cooperative union or lobby groups that would champion their interest as well as buy and sell their products at the best advantage. On the contrary, waiting for the politicians to create jobs will be an act of futility. To the Governor of Kisumu County(this applies to many other counties too), you are in a unique position to spur prosperity and create a legacy. I would ask you to be careful and start small. Create sustainable projects that will spar prosperity in the long run as opposed to short-term thrills. Realize that your job is not to please special interest but to appease economic growth. The central government will give you money to run your county but you also need to find alternative revenue. I urge you to find idle land in the county and unleash the knowledge of a few experts and the many university graduates and start a food production project that would make the county self-reliant in food within the next five years. This will achieve additional revenue, create employment and a new economy, broaden your tax base, spar growth in other industries and lower food cost.

Many will ask, how does this create a new economy? It really does. Most of the food currently consumed in Kisumu is imported from other parts of the country thus making Kisumu County a consumption economy, by producing the food locally, the economy balances into a consumption and production economy but it doesn’t end there. There will be need for storing, packaging, branding and distribution of the food and who would be doing that? The unemployed will pick up these duties thus providing them with gainful employment. I had mentioned lowered food prices, yes. Food prices will be lowered by eliminating the transportation costs that are currently levied on the food imported from places as far out as Muranga.

There are many other areas that the County Government may get involved in but I think in Kisumu County, this would be the best investment because it not only provides the county government with additional revenue, creates employment and increases food production, it also traps the money that the county loses to other parts of the country by purchasing their food thus growing the Counties economy. Kisumu County unlike many other Counties, starts from a position of advantage in that it is an untapped market in itself. That is a luxury many Counties do not have.

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