I was going through the opinion pages of the Sunday Nation newspaper of 27/05/07 when I came across Mutuma Mathiu’s commentary. Titled “Blueprint from the ‘Great African’ leader”, the writer enumerates his vision for the country if elected President. The ideas look good until he gets to the part where he’s proposing drastic changes to local government. I got inspired to write him this letter.
Hi Mutuma,
Just a brief note thanking you for your insightful ideas on what you plan to do if elected President of Kenya. Am sure many aspiring candidates will borrow heavily from some of these ideas.
However, I take great exception to your comments on local authorities as quoted below.
"Local government: Redesign local government by taking away effective powers to collect, budget and spend revenue from kanjuras and vest them in more effective and competent bodies. Mayors and Councillors would be freed to spend their time heckling, fighting and other ceremonial duties."
These are just the sort of comments that Kenyans can do without. What this does is to deepen the stereotype of Councillors as bufoons, without addressing the reasons of how they get elected in the first place and what can be done to correct the situation.
Your appalling solution to the problem does not help matters at all. Why should tax payers be burdened with salaries of people who are not working? We might as well abolish the position of Councillors.
I firmly believe that the dubious Councillors we get saddled with after every general elections, is due to lack of background knowledge on these candidates. If Nairobi voters for example, were aware that they were electing an uncouth fellow who has been a “makanga” most of his working life, they would think twice before doing the famous "three-piece" voting style to elect him as a "City Father".
The Kenyan media where you are a leading practitioner, has miserably failed voters in this regards. With every multi-party elections, the leading media houses in Kenya have faithfully carried candidates profiles at parliamentary and presidential levels. The Daily Nation is currently doing this.
Unfortunately, no single profiling initiative has ever been conducted for civic candidates. Is it any wonder that voters in Nairobi do not know their local Councillors yet they voted for one in 2002? I can bet you ten thousand bob that you probably also don't know your local Councillor!
As a civic candidate for Kileleshwa ward in Westlands constituency, I would like to challenge you in your capacity as a managing editor at the largest media house in East Africa to start an initiative in the Daily Nation profiling current Councillors at City Hall and aspiring civic candidates in all the 55 Nairobi wards.
I can assure you, the knowledge you will have imparted to Nairobi voters will ensure they make informed choices come December 2007. Do this and even you, will be proud to have a Nairobi City Council managed by respectable individuals who have no time for shenanigans such as throwing stools at each other.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Dancan Muhindi
- Professionals for City Hall -
http://nairobicouncillor.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mr. councillor,
ReplyDeleteI'm a resident of Kilimani and after going through your blog, I'm seriously considering registering at Kileleshwa primary to put you in.
This is an interesting topic you've brought here. From what I know, there are quite a number of Councillors at City Hall who infact were former makangas. That sort of background does not prepare one to manage a capital city anywhere in the world. No wonder they fight and heckle whenever they have full council meetings.
Why don't you do some good research for us on their profiles and publish it here? We deserve to know what kind of councillors we elected in 2002.
I agree with Tony. We need to see who these guys really are. I've heard crazy stories about their Cvs....that some were maize sellers while others were just lay-abouts in the estates. The media should also rise up to their responsibility of informing us accordingly. We need professionals running this city.
ReplyDeleteKaribu Tony and Wafula.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that many Kenyans are now seeing the need to urgently transform the management of our local authorities.
Through several emails and conversations with journalists from the main stream media houses, I've strongly advocated for journalists to take up the challenge of informing voters regarding their leaders' backgrounds.
I believe it's a responibility they owe to voters and tax payers in this country. Media commentators are usually the first ones to write critically regarding low leadership standards and mediocrity in our local authorities. They should therefore rise to the occassion and become more pro-active in changing the status quo.
Hehehe! This is interesting.
ReplyDeleteI live in Kangemi ward and I happen to know that our current Councillor used to sell chang'aa before he got elected. Ask people in Kangemi and they'll verify this. Bwana Muhindi, please keep up the good work.