Over this week, the building bridges initiative task force toured the coast region, and two Coast governors came in a fresh push for a federal system of government commonly known as majimbo.
The idea resonates with residents, who, historically, have demanded introduction of the system to spur even growth across the country.
In their separate proposals to the Building Bridges Initiative team, Kilifis’s Amason Kingi and his Mombasa counterpart Hassan Joho said the country should adopt a three-tier system of government that comprises national, federal and county governments.
The handshake team was in Kilifi on Tuesday and Mombasa yesterday to collect public views.
Earlier in the year, the two had pushed to have Coast secede from Kenya. Their quest fizzled out and they now seem to have settled for ‘one Kenya’, but the kind where regions have more stake when it comes to sharing of the national cake.
“If we want to foster integration, we should do away with the current system of government,” Kingi said on Tuesday.
He wants the former provinces turned into federal governments. He blamed electoral fraud at the national level to tribalism, centralisation of most resources and the syndrome of ‘it’s our time to eat’.
“If you look at the current dispensation, when a Majikenda declares to vie for the presidency, all Mijikendas will rally behind him with a view to reaping the benefits when he is finally elected. The same applies to other tribes. We want a situation where we won’t care who will be president as long as he is a Kenyan,” Kingi said.
He suggested that the powers of the president and allocations to the national government be reduced and more resources channelled to the regional governments. The governor proposed 80 per cent revenue allocation to the regions and 20 per cent to the national government.
He told the taskforce that the current system is a recipe for perennial post-election violence due to the powers and resources the presidency commands.
“By doing this, the presidency will be very unpleasant and no one would use billions to campaign in the whole country just to control 20 per cent of the revenue. This will be the end of post-election violence because, in Kenya, it’s only presidential elections that have issues,” he said.
He also proposed that police officers be under the regional governments, with the defence forces retained at the national level to take care of territorial boundaries.
On his part, Joho yesterday said Kenyans prefer the Bomas draft constitution, which had proposed 12 regional governments. He wants the 47 counties retained. His position on revenue allocation was, however, at variance with Kingi’s.
“There is no harm creating a third tier of government, which can be allocated 30 per cent of the national revenue, the counties remain with the 15 per cent and the national government 55 per cent,” he said at the Kenya School of Government in Mombasa.
Do you support their proposals?