Former governor says he does not wish to introduce hurdles on Lenku’s path, asking him to deliver on his promises to the people
Joint Report
Former Kajiado governor David Nkedianye does not feel left out of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) in the county, despite the fact that Governor Joseph ole Lenku is yet to invite him to any of the forum’s meetings.
And contrary to sentiments currently doing the rounds, Nkedianye has no problem with the appointment of Lenku to coordinate BBI activities in the three counties of Kajiado, Narok and Samburu.
“Governors are in a better position to coordinate and mobilize wananchi towards the goals of BBI,” Nkedianye told the Kajiado Star in an exclusive interview.
He also sought to clear the air that he has been shunted aside by the powers that be. “There is a rumour being peddled around to the effect that I have fallen out of favour. It is obvious that some people are scared owing to my track record as a leader in this county,” he said.
“These people cannot wish me away,” continued Nkedianye. “At the end of the day, the final decision lies with wananchi; they will decide who to vote in and who to reject. Besides, on BBI, we are still consulting; it is not like we are voting tomorrow morning.”
He is optimistic that there is still time and that he will be invited to present his views to the committee. “Let us not lose sight of the fact that this is a national conversation and that everyone has a right to address those issues,” he explained. “It is to the benefit of the county that people put their heads together. We only hope that all views will be considered.”
The former governor, however, cautioned against using the BBI platform to campaign for positions in the 2022 elections. “It is a fallacy to think that you will push some people aside so as to make it easier for yourself in 2022,” he said. “Come election time, it does not matter whether you were in BBI or not; what counts is your performance while in office. You cannot use BBI to mask poor performance while in office.”
Referring to utterances coming from different national leaders regarding BBI, the former governor said the situation is still fluid. “There is still a lot of pushing and pulling within BBI, with different factions espousing varying ideas on the Initiative. We will see how it pans out eventually; for now, it is not clear,” he added.
Our discussion inevitably led to whether he will challenge Governor Lenku in 2022: “In the fullness of time, I will make my announcement; for now, I am actively watching what is happening on the leadership front,” he said.
He does not wish to be seen to be introducing hurdles on Lenku’s leadership path. “For the benefit of mwananchi, I don’t want to introduce sideshows, making noise just for the sake of it. I want him (Lenku) to deliver on the promises he made to the people without any excuses,” said Nkedianye.
He further explained that he would not want Lenku to go through the experience he went through when he served as an ODM governor with a County Assembly full of Jubilee MCAs. The Jubilee MCAs were hell-bent on frustrating his every move as governor. “That is a very bad way of serving wananchi,” he added.
He however clarified that MCAs should not be muzzled when working for the people who elected them. “MCAs should raise their voices as it is their duty to oversight the executive. They should point out bad usage of money and when there are no projects or work on the ground,” said Nkedianye.
The Kajiado county government is currently receiving more than double the allocation from the national government that his government used to receive, Nkedianye says. “We started off at Sh3.2 billion, which rose to Sh5.8 billion per year. The current government is getting Sh10.3 billion from Treasury.”
In his time, wards used to get Sh45 million for development per year. “With the increased allocation, I do not see why each ward shouldn’t be getting upwards of Sh70 million to Sh80 million a year,” he said. “We should be seeing development projects taking place all over the place.”
He also sought to address allegations levelled against his administration to the effect that it failed to collect enough revenue. “When we started, revenue collection in the county stood at Sh270 million per year. There were no systems whatsoever. We introduced systems and revenue shot up to Sh805 million,” said Nkedianye.
Lenku’s government declared that, last year, it hit a record high of Sh1.2 billion in revenue collection. Nkedianya attributes that to the revenue collection systems his government put in place.
And in a rare challenge to the current regime, the former governor urged Lenku’s government to showcase the development projects they have initiated ever since it came into power. “Apart from the Mbuzi Moja (Afya Bora) initiative, we are waiting for new things from this government,” he said.
“We completed many markets in Kiserian, Rongai, Matasia, Embulbul and Mile 46,” said Nkedianye. “We also did the Kitengela bus stage, which greatly eased congestion in the town, as well as the Ngong Stadium, which is now stalled.”
He added that Lenku’s government has been taking undue credit on World Bank projects, claiming that those ones were signed during his time as governor.
“I am not at all surprised that they are busy hitting at me,” he said, dismissing the attacks as mere scapegoating. “At the right time I will give a full assessment of everything I have observed.”
And to drive his drive his point home, Nkedianye turned to philosophy: “In the study of philosophy, there is noumena, which is things as they are and phenomena, which is things as they appear. People should learn to differentiate between the two,” he said with a smile playing on his lips.
We also sought his views on the highly publicised spats between Lenku, on the one hand, and a number of officers at the Kajiado county government. In the first instance, a misunderstanding between the governor and Speaker Johnson Osoi almost led to the impeachment of the latter. The other one has to do with the ongoing bad blood between the Governor and Osoi’s deputy, Joseph Masiaya.
While he did not want to be seen as prying into other leaders’ affairs, Nkedianye called for tolerance and respect among public officials. “While leaders cannot agree at all times, they should realise that they are in the public eye and that people are watching. They should instead focus on their jobs and better still, work on anger management.”
