Has Devolution Provided Any Leadership Direction Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic?

Covid-19 started in China as a virus, went to Italy as a pandemic, and finally landed in Kenya as corruption. This is a common statement that has been flying around since the advent of Covid-19 to Kenya. Do you agree with these sentiments?

Covid-19 landed in Kenya in March 2020, and since then, so many things have changed. Businesses have shut down, millions of Kenyans have lost their jobs, and learners are out of school. Life is just getting difficult for millions of Kenyans.

People are hopelessly trying to sail through the pandemic with no assurance of having a better tomorrow. Amid all these, the gnawing pandemic, has the leadership of the national, and county governments provided the much-needed solutions?

As Kenyans continue to live through the pandemic, politicians are up and down and the season of big words and small words, fat words and thin words, tall words and short words (as Wahome Mutahi used to say) is now officially on.

Truth is our leaders, both at the national and county level shave failed to provide sound leadership during the Covid-19 period. It is, in fact, right to say that millions of Kenyans were abandoned at the time they needed their leaders the most.

When devolution came into being, after the promulgation of the then-new constitution (it is now old in the eyes of politicians and they now want to change it), Kenyans saw a glimmer of hope for better leadership and future developments for them and other generation.

In devolution, Kenyans saw jobs, better roads, great health facilities, reduction in poverty levels, equal sharing of the national resources without any discrimination, better education for their kids among other great dreams.

But in times of Covid-19, our leaders have led us down. At the national level, you may have heard the loot at KEMSA. It is alleged that billions of shillings meant for the fight of Covid-19 might have been stolen. For people to steal funds meant to fight a pandemic means two things; either there was no pandemic or they are not human. I think they are not human.

Things are worse at the county levels. The national government says funds to help in the fight against Covid-19 were released to counties, especially those that registered first cases. But if you ask people on the ground, they only heard about the funds through the media.

Most counties are still struggling to achieve the required bed capacity for Covid-19. But since the curve seems to be flattening, whether manually or through some unseen forces, the dream of having enough beds in county hospitals might forever remain a dream.

Even in the midst of the pandemic, our politicians seem to have decided that masks must be off. It now masks off and politicians both at the county and national government traverse their regions drumming for their ‘ideas.’ We all so Eldoret trending, and some issues about a mother who was insulted.

In a real sense it is not about the “mother,” but politics. As the pandemic continues to eat into the world, in Kenya, drums of war are beating. Their beats are loud and the crescendo is at its peak. Instead of mourning, Kenyans are busy dancing to the tune.

The BBI reggae that had “taken a break” is now up and kicking. Although we do not know what the content of the documents are, our wise politicians are telling us to support it. How can you support or oppose something that you have not seen? Anyway, that is a matter for another day.

Bottom line is, our leaders at the county level have failed us at the time we needed them the most.