Apparently, county governments seem to have run out of development ideas. Or perhaps they have so much cash on their hands that they cannot think straight and execute proper spending to improve the living states of their constituents.
My statement above is of course a biased opinion since I did not comprehensively evaluate a representative sample of counties. But then, I don't have to because, one, I am not a statistician, and two, I am actually talking Migori county here. So should you see 'county governments', read it as 'Migori county government'.
Does the name Migori County ring a bell? Flying, flying? ... Shoes, shoes? No?
Stating briefly, residents of Migori appear to have gathered enough courage to silence incapable leaders, even in the presence of a president. Reliable gossip says they fired rocket-propelled shoes, and other incredibly fast moving projectiles, at the platform where their governor was perched. This was to protest against unfavorable policies adopted by his administration. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Uhuru was sharing the same dais with the governor. So when shoes went flying, it was not clear who the target was. Heck, it cannot even be established who was shoe-ing who. But of course, when the story went national, it was that 'Migori residents shoed Uhuru'. That, or something to that effect was a cover story in many Kenyan dailies. However, it is public knowledge that such headlines are implicitly crafted to drive sales but are as shallow as they can get.
Consequently, in a pretentious show of good faith, the embattled Migori Governor, Obado, hired some 200 or 500 idlers, from some villages, somewhere, to go drink state house tea, and lick Nairobi ice-cream. Perhaps his so called, delegation had been constituted before the "shoe rally" as a preemptive measure.
Obado's first day at the capital bore no fruit as Uhuru was busy attending to important matters, maybe of national security, I guess. Obado must have learnt that you don't just appear in Nairobi with a cheering squad then ask to see the president. Whether Obado booked an appointment or not, might be a different piece altogether.
So when Uhuru and his deputy finally found time out of their busy schedules to address Obado's trivialities, it was nothing but a mere common political rally. Declarations, drunken cheering... you know how they do these crazy rallies, don't you?
It also appears that Uhuru only agreed to talk to Obado and his lorry-load of so called 'delegates' so as not to ashame them, having travelled all the way from the lakeside, probably on a hired convoy of buses, and risking their lives at blackspots along the dusty and potholed highways.
If Obado only needed to deliver an apology, then a press statement, phone call, snail mail, e-mail or even a nice little tweet would have overly sufficed that purpose.
Even if he just had to pay homage to Uhuru: to declare his loyalty like in the good old Kenyatta, Moi and their KANU days. He could have taken probably an MCA, an MP and member of his cabinet. Not a whole village of ignoramuses whose only delight was the thought of good cash, allowances and free tours. A bunch who do not give a hoot about Migori county as long as they are duly and unduly paid.
You might be wondering by now why I only refer to the Migori governor as Obado or just Governor Obado. Well, I forgot his other name, and won't Google it either. I'm not even sure if he is called Obado. But as long as you understand, I can call him by any name.
In the early days of establishing devolved units, county governments embarked on foreign tours in the pretext of acquiring development and management ideas. The traveling officials awarded themselves ridiculous allowances, although the returns from their numerous trips abroad are still very much arguable.
At some point, the host countries got weary of all these MCA's trooping back and forth in the name of educational tours. So they banned them from visiting and wasting county resources, and public funds. What a shame!
But they have since changed their tour destinations to Nairobi, Mombasa and other places of interest or entertainment within Kenya.
Therefore, starting with Obado's tour, in the company of freeloaders masquerading as delegates, this waste of county resources has to be stopped. County governments, and governors, should focus on development instead of engaging in poorly choreographed, yet still, amusing political theatricals, and public relations campaigns.
More so seeing that Jubilee has not managed to transition from politics to governance, and still holds meaningless political rallies left, right, center, and wherever.
Better still, Nairobi governor Evans Kidero could simply ban these primitive delegations from visiting his county.
I'm out.
By Okaka Alfred - the writer is a Kenyan citizen.
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