Sunday, September 12, 2010

Needed: Governors with vision and foresight

By KWENDO OPANGA, diplospeak@yahoo.com
Posted Saturday, September 11 2010 at 11:47
In Summary

Aspiration: Kenyans should now pay more attention to what vote seekers are saying about jobs and prosperity

Suddenly you hear all sorts of characters, charlatans included, expressing an interest in the seat of governor of this or that county.

You might also have heard the wish expressed that the people to occupy the office of governor should be technocrats.

And, you may have heard that many politicians, current and past Members of Parliament, want to become governors. I have written here that when I grow up, I want to be Governor and pointed out that former US presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were governors before they became presidents.

That is to say for these gentlemen the Governor’s Mansion was a junction on the road to the White House. I then made the point that in future presidential races, we in Kenya should pay particular attention to governors.

My position is that governors are going to be hugely important and powerful people in this polity, its politics and administration. Indeed, if Kenya’s governors emulated their Nigerian counterparts and formed a lobby to promote inter-county co-operation, they could sponsor one of their number for the presidency.

From where I sit, the governor will serve as the chief executive of his or her county. It is the governor who will give direction as to how the Sh3 billion annual remittance from the central government to the county will be spent and with what objectives in mind.

The governor will lead the county in identifying its economic challenges and charting its economic priorities and the road map for their fulfilment.

The governor will lead the county in creating models for attracting investors and visitors, creating an environment in which industry and businesses flourish, creating jobs and prosperity.

This means that because the governor will be directly elected by the people, he or she will be the political as well as administrative head of the county. It will be the governor’s role to demonstrate that his or her county is a credible unit which contributes significantly to the development of the polity.

In this regard, governors will have to ensure that their counties contribute in a significant way to the realisation of Vision 2030 which is the blueprint for transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030.

Needless to say, Nairobi and Mombasa, for example, are our two most important cities and, as counties, they should have governors who will command respect locally and internationally in terms of ideas to make them world class metropolises into which global capital will flow.

Again, needless to say, other counties deserve governors of foresight and vision who will give Nairobi and Mombasa competition and claim their place on the high table of shining regions to which investors and visitors will be attracted.

In counties, there are cities and towns with mayors, with each city, town and mayor having their development agenda. The governor will have to work closely with all these leaders and, therefore, this demands specific skills of the governors to create harmonious working models and relationships.

The governor will be the face of the county and the embodiment of devolved governance. By his or her performance and leadership, a county will stand out as a beacon of development and hope or as the sore thumb of missed opportunities and despair.

Precisely because governors will be elected by popular suffrage, it is hugely important that certain salient issues be given serious thought and addressed.

I believe certain minimum standards regarding academic, professional and managerial qualifications as well experience and track records must be set out in law for those who wish to run for these strategic offices.

Why? If a Mungiki leader, for example, were pitted against an achieving but little known technocrat or international civil servant in the race for Governor of Nairobi, he/she could trounce the better respected technocrat because he/she is the better known person.

If you head the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) you must have certain leadership qualities that many of us do not have. But with the shadow of terror lurking in the background, the playing field will have already been unfairly tilted in favour of SDLF’s choice.

These are reasons enough to take technocrats back into the cocoon of politics-is-too-dirty-a-game-for-me. Yet, there is a school of thought which argues that a people get the leadership they deserve.

I rather think a people deserve a leader who makes their lives better and lays the foundation for continued prosperity. Therefore, Kenyans should now pay much more attention to what vote seekers are saying about jobs, infrastructure, investment and prosperity.

Yes, the people will govern – with the right governor!

The writer is a media consultant

diplospeak@yahoo.com

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