BWIRE: Devolution Conference 2018; Media should avoid theatrics

As Kakamega County prepares to host the 5^th Devolution Conference later this month, and as expected, a battery of journalists attend and give us the highlights of the conference.

As has been seen from the previous conferences, colour stories will dominate the media, and the reportage will be about the Governors and the politics of devolution rather than devolution and its imperatives. Please this time, media do Kenyans a favour by giving us the devolution story.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010, which provides for devolved government indicates the functions as promoting social and economic development and the provision of proximate, easily accessible services throughout Kenya; ensure equitable sharing of national and local resources throughout Kenya; facilitate the decentralization of State organs, their functions and services, from the capital of Kenya.

Has the media been asking these questions? What is the Government’s policy and direction on devolution? What guides the philosophy?

The County governments Act No. 17 of 2012 requires that County Government use the media to create awareness on devolution and governance; promote citizens understanding for purposes of peace and national cohesion; undertake advocacy on core development issues such as agriculture, education, health, security, economics, sustainable environment among others; and promotion of the freedom of the media.

Thus the media has a huge responsibility, to only remain vigilant in monitoring the implementation of the devolution project, but more importantly, the media also bears the responsibility of sensitizing and education the public on the virtues, opportunities, and challenges of the devolution process.

The colour stories must go side-by-side with stories from across the country, best and worst case scenarios, which will ultimately have the most impact on the day-to-day operation of the counties and also on the livelihood of the people in those counties.

A current study by the Media Council of Kenya on media Coverage of Devolution, supported by USAID, through AHADI, makes very worrying observations; that there are gaps in coverage of devolution by the media mainly because of capacity and structural challenges and the related limitations.

Key findings include; views on devolution occupies a small percentage of the news coverage and often does not provide meaningful communication on performance issues, stories on devolution are rarely captured in the front pages and front line news of the national print media publications.

Further, coverage of devolution by the media in Kenya largely favours the urban counties with little attention to the rural ones and that there is unfavourable relationship between most counties and the media due to the perception that the media coverage of devolution was mostly negative. Above all, that the activities, operations and plans of the County Governments largely remained inaccessible to the media due to suspicion and bad relationship between the institutions.

It’s important for the media to highlight the history of devolution and the many attempts towards decentralizing governance and service delivery in Kenya, success and worst cases and why, it was important to support the decentralisation of administration with transfer of resources and authority through the process.

The intention of decentralization in Kenya has been to ensure that the national Government (the Kenya state) authorship of development process and planning is based on local inputs as a means of improving socio-economic well-being of local communities.

The focus is on economic and social development of the local people based on exploitation of local resources while at the same time ensuring national unity and sharing of our diversity as one nation.  Thus, by media looking at the budgets developed by the county governments, it call enable the citizens see if what is planned is economically relevant to them.

Attempts at decentralization started at independence, through majimbo, which granted significant recognition and responsibility to the regions. The system granted power to the Local Authorities to collect taxes and the responsibility for the maintenance of schools, health facilities and minor roads.

Through “Sessional paper No. 10 of 1965 on African socialism and its application in planning” the government established the principle of state direction of development process and decentralization of planning based on local inputs as a means of improving socio-economic well being of the rural community.

The Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1975 on ‘Economic Prospects and Policies’  laid emphasis on Government’s commitment to rural development’. In furtherance of this thinking, since late 1970s and early 1980s, the 6 Regional Development Authorities (RDAs) that were established were given a common mandate to plan and coordinate the implementation of regional development activities.

Even in the District Focus for Rural Development Strategy (DFRDS) that was developed in 1983 that made the district the epicentre of all development interventions emphasized economic and social development via exploitation of local resources.

Other decentralization interventions including the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) Act of 1999 only provided for the disbursement of funds to Local Authorities to supplement the financing of the services and facilities they are required to provide under the Local Government Act.

The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) that followed in 2003 through the CDF Act aimed at controlling imbalances in regional development especially focusing on poverty reduction at constituency levels.

 The Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) that was implemented in 2000 in tandem with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) followed by the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (2003- 2007) stressed the need to accelerate local government reform process in order to further improve local service delivery, governance and poverty alleviation and not destroying or allowing county governments to compete with the national government on some issues including  security.

Increased and in depth coverage of the County Governments and Assemblies by the media is essential if citizens are to hold county authorities to account for the services promised.

Given the number of Governors and Members of the County Assemblies voted ousted during the 2017 General Election, a sign that voters were not satisfied by their performance, media must assist in setting the agenda that will ensure that county governments are focused on key  relevant deliverables, not on posturing for a national audience, but on local issues, which will ultimately have the most impact on the day-to-day operation of the counties and also on the livelihood of the people in those counties.

A lot more needs to be done to improve on the media coverage of devolution ranging from capacity-building of the media, both the county executives and assemblies to address the gaps and hurdles including trainings on media relations, media literacy and public out-reach and participation including convening of regular media and county forums for debates/discourse  on devolution.

Victor Bwire works at the Media Council of Kenya as the Programmes Manager victor@mediacouncil.or.ke