Odinga ‘federo’ promise divides Kenyans
Nov 06, 2007
EVEN with three opinion polls putting him ahead of incumbent Mwai Kibaki in the race to State House, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) flag bearer, Raila Odinga, has sparked off a major controversy that might determine the outcome of the December 27 election: his pre-election promise of establishing
Reuben Olita
EVEN with three opinion polls putting him ahead of incumbent Mwai Kibaki in the race to State House, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) flag bearer, Raila Odinga, has sparked off a major controversy that might determine the outcome of the December 27 election: his pre-election promise of establishing a decentralised system of government if he takes over power.
ODM says it is time for the system commonly known as Majimbo (Swahili for regions) to share wealth and power. But President Kibaki, ex-president Daniel arap Moi, Catholic Archbishop Cardinal John Njue, and the Party of National Unity (PNU) that is rooting for Kibaki’s re-election, have said that Majimbo was a colonial concept for civil war, ethnic cleansing and tribalism.
Both Raila’s ODM and Kalonzo Musyoka’s ODM-Kenya are pushing for the system. ODM-Kenya is proposing economic Majimbo where resources are shared between the centre and the regions, but ODM want both political and economic Majimbo.
The government has vowed to block any attempts by ODM and ODM-Kenya to introduce the system in post-independent Kenya. Despite this, ODM supporters have vowed to embarrass the government using the ballot by voting for Raila. The view the opposition to Majimbo as a scheme to protect the selfish interests a few tycoons at the expense of the majority of Kenyans.
Odinga says Majimbo will involve decentralisation of power from the national government and giving it to the people. During implementation, his party intends to rely on the Bomas draft which recommended the system. The Bomas draft proposed that Kenya be divided into 13 regions, each comprising a number of districts.
Under the system, each district will have an elected government, a budget and a parliament. The central government will be in charge of national institutions like armed forces, universities, national hospitals and highways — as proposed in the Bomas draft.
ODM contents that the system will make the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) a small programme to cater for emergencies. More funds will go to the communities, who will through district parliaments decide how to spend it. The district government will have its own anthem, parliament and flag and deal with all local issues. The common citizen wants the system but opponents of the system want resources to be concentrated at the centre.
The federal system would provide avenues for nurturing leaders before they go to the national scene. ODM have renamed the proposed system Ugatuzi, which means devolution of power and resources, because Majimbo (regions) was being used by PNU to scare Kenyans off ODM.
ODM says Ugatuzi would be similar to that of South Africa where regions are funded according to their needs. They are also proposing a policy of locating industrial activity in different parts of the country.
ODM says Ugatuzi will not confine people to their regions and neither will they require passports to travel from one region to another as PNU would want them to believe. They say it is not true that under Ugatuzi, people will be moved from where they live back to their ancestral homes. They dismiss NPU’s view that richer areas will suffer because some funds would be used to subsidise poor areas. They reject NPU version that the system would chop Kenya into little tribalistic and balkanized units.
The system, ODM sasy, is different from the old Majimbo which failed in the 1960s. Majimbo was introduced into the Kenyan constitution following the Lancaster House conference of 1962. It envisaged a system of government where executive, legislative and financial powers were shared between the central and the regional governments. The regional boundaries were loosely based on ethnic boundaries drawn by the British.
One of the two surviving members of the Lancaster House team, Martin Shikuku, says the death of Majimbo was orchestrated by Kenya’s first President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, when he ordered the then constitutional affairs minister, Tom Mboya, to return all powers of the regions to the central government after making 39 amendments to the constitution.
Shikuku says the KANU government favoured a unitary system of government because it considered it a threat to national unity.
Shikuku says those who favoured Majimbo at the time wanted to share the national cake. “Tribalism is ripe in the country and chaos will erupt where resources are not distributed equally. Even small tribes like the Ogiek have graduates and should therefore be entitled to a share of the national cake,†he says.
The opposition accuse President Kibaki of failing to contain corruption, among other ills. Opinion polls have portrayed Odinga as commanding support in all provinces except Eastern and Central. Kibaki hails from the central region. It remains to be seen whether Odinga campaign team can neutralise PNU propaganda against Majimbo and see him become Kenya’s fourth president.
The writer is a journalist based in Nairobi
EVEN with three opinion polls putting him ahead of incumbent Mwai Kibaki in the race to State House, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) flag bearer, Raila Odinga, has sparked off a major controversy that might determine the outcome of the December 27 election: his pre-election promise of establishing a decentralised system of government if he takes over power.
ODM says it is time for the system commonly known as Majimbo (Swahili for regions) to share wealth and power. But President Kibaki, ex-president Daniel arap Moi, Catholic Archbishop Cardinal John Njue, and the Party of National Unity (PNU) that is rooting for Kibaki’s re-election, have said that Majimbo was a colonial concept for civil war, ethnic cleansing and tribalism.
Both Raila’s ODM and Kalonzo Musyoka’s ODM-Kenya are pushing for the system. ODM-Kenya is proposing economic Majimbo where resources are shared between the centre and the regions, but ODM want both political and economic Majimbo.
The government has vowed to block any attempts by ODM and ODM-Kenya to introduce the system in post-independent Kenya. Despite this, ODM supporters have vowed to embarrass the government using the ballot by voting for Raila. The view the opposition to Majimbo as a scheme to protect the selfish interests a few tycoons at the expense of the majority of Kenyans.
Odinga says Majimbo will involve decentralisation of power from the national government and giving it to the people. During implementation, his party intends to rely on the Bomas draft which recommended the system. The Bomas draft proposed that Kenya be divided into 13 regions, each comprising a number of districts.
Under the system, each district will have an elected government, a budget and a parliament. The central government will be in charge of national institutions like armed forces, universities, national hospitals and highways — as proposed in the Bomas draft.
ODM contents that the system will make the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) a small programme to cater for emergencies. More funds will go to the communities, who will through district parliaments decide how to spend it. The district government will have its own anthem, parliament and flag and deal with all local issues. The common citizen wants the system but opponents of the system want resources to be concentrated at the centre.
The federal system would provide avenues for nurturing leaders before they go to the national scene. ODM have renamed the proposed system Ugatuzi, which means devolution of power and resources, because Majimbo (regions) was being used by PNU to scare Kenyans off ODM.
ODM says Ugatuzi would be similar to that of South Africa where regions are funded according to their needs. They are also proposing a policy of locating industrial activity in different parts of the country.
ODM says Ugatuzi will not confine people to their regions and neither will they require passports to travel from one region to another as PNU would want them to believe. They say it is not true that under Ugatuzi, people will be moved from where they live back to their ancestral homes. They dismiss NPU’s view that richer areas will suffer because some funds would be used to subsidise poor areas. They reject NPU version that the system would chop Kenya into little tribalistic and balkanized units.
The system, ODM sasy, is different from the old Majimbo which failed in the 1960s. Majimbo was introduced into the Kenyan constitution following the Lancaster House conference of 1962. It envisaged a system of government where executive, legislative and financial powers were shared between the central and the regional governments. The regional boundaries were loosely based on ethnic boundaries drawn by the British.
One of the two surviving members of the Lancaster House team, Martin Shikuku, says the death of Majimbo was orchestrated by Kenya’s first President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, when he ordered the then constitutional affairs minister, Tom Mboya, to return all powers of the regions to the central government after making 39 amendments to the constitution.
Shikuku says the KANU government favoured a unitary system of government because it considered it a threat to national unity.
Shikuku says those who favoured Majimbo at the time wanted to share the national cake. “Tribalism is ripe in the country and chaos will erupt where resources are not distributed equally. Even small tribes like the Ogiek have graduates and should therefore be entitled to a share of the national cake,†he says.
The opposition accuse President Kibaki of failing to contain corruption, among other ills. Opinion polls have portrayed Odinga as commanding support in all provinces except Eastern and Central. Kibaki hails from the central region. It remains to be seen whether Odinga campaign team can neutralise PNU propaganda against Majimbo and see him become Kenya’s fourth president.
The writer is a journalist based in Nairobi