RAILA POKE HOLES INTO THE CONSTITUTION

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has renewed his push for constitutional changes, proposing a referendum to review Kenya’s governance system and overhaul devolution.

Raila, who spoke during the Katiba@15 anniversary at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), said the two-tier arrangement of national and county governments is inadequate and should be restructured to enhance service delivery.

“I believe the time has come for the country to re-examine the whole issue of devolution. Kenya, in my view, is too tiny; we are just five short of the United States, which is a continent. Nigeria, with over 200 million people, has 34 states, while South Africa has nine provinces,” he said.

The ODM leader suggested introducing a three-tier system that would create regional governments in addition to counties and the national administration. He argued this would promote fairness, ease coordination, and spread development more evenly.

He also criticised attempts to resuscitate the provincial administration, calling it an outdated structure that contradicts Kenya’s democratic progress.

“This was an issue at Bomas. We said provincial administration has no place in an independent Kenya, yet we seem to be reviving it,” he noted.

Raila did not hold back on the issue of the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), accusing it of weakening devolution by diverting resources away from counties.

“Constituency is not a devolved unit. Devolution has two levels, national and county. It is not right for the national government to jump the county government and create another unit below it. The money being given for constituency projects should go to the counties, since they are the ones mandated to implement,” Raila said.

He argued that MPs were overstepping their role by managing projects through NG-CDF while at the same time exercising oversight.

“Parliament should do what is constitutionally mandated: representation, legislation, and oversight. If you are yourself a contractor and a member of parliament, who is oversighting you?” he posed.

Raila insisted the matter should be resolved by Kenyans through a referendum, stressing that he would not bow to pressure.

“I know my position is unpopular, but I don’t care. Over this issue, there is no compromise,” he said.

Raila reminded the audience that CDF was first created when development was largely driven by harambees under an all-powerful presidency. With devolution now entrenched in the 2010 Constitution, he said, the fund is no longer relevant.

“Most of the work was basically left to harambees, when you needed to build a school, harambee; a dispensary, harambee. But the system has since changed. We removed the patronage model, adopted devolution, created a constitutional commission to allocate resources, and empowered Parliament on budgetary matters. In this new order, CDF is obsolete,” he said.

He further proposed that all monies under NG-CDF and the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) be redirected to county governments to strengthen devolution.

However, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula dismissed Odinga's suggestion insisting that CDF remains part of the national government’s mandate.

“CDF is a share of shared revenue on the side of the national government. So, governors and the CoG have absolutely no issue and no interest in CDF. It is not their money,” Wetang’ula said at an event in Mombasa.

He maintained that constituencies are a legitimate unit for development and rejected suggestions that the fund undermines county governments.

“We want to make everybody who has doubts about CDF understand that it is not an affront to devolution, it is not in competition with devolution, and it does not undermine devolution. It is a national government activity,” he added.

Moreover, Raila's suggestion has since been rejected by the National Assembly, the MPs promising to thwart efforts aimed at scrapping off the funds.

The conundrum illustrates a push and pull between the two arms of government, the legislature advocating for the retainment on the NG-CDF as the executive seemingly vouch to support Raila's perspective.