NERIMA: Reforms are good, even welcome, but they must benefit us beyond the polls

Every election year, if you ask an average Kenyan, is a time for reform. It’s one season politicians put to maximum use, travelling the country and ruling the airwaves calling for the change in the composition of the electoral agency, now going by the name Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission. This agitation for change is often mislabelled electoral reforms.

Reforms are not bad in themselves. In fact, they are the reasons Kenya is where it is: A vibrant, multi-party state with one of the most progressive constitutions in the world.

There is a good history behind this. In the days of Kanu single-party rule, the civil society, churches and the opposition were vibrant and the push toward multiparty was united.

Even university students were a key pillar in the struggle for change. Working together, these groups would come up with policies to support and push for change.

That was then. Today, the public does not trust civil society farther than they can throw them. The wider civil society is accused of being nothing more than hired mouthpieces of donors and the West.

Worse, those who were in civil society back then are now elected in government and have become the very “bad” politicians they fought.
Where am I going with this?

Reforms are good but we need more than just a reform of electoral processes. There is a dire need for new ideas. There needs to be a total reform on how we go about issues such as education, climate change, the youth, and the economy.

Take the blue economy, for example. What do we understand by the term? As much as we rave about our new education system being rolled out and having sessions that tackle life skills; what about issues around the blue economy and how the children will survive in the future? How can opportunities be created while existing ones are amplified?

What are we doing about climate change? Countries such as South Africa have had to ration water, while in cities like Nairobi most inhabitants have to buy water. Running tap water? What is that?

The population is vibrant and growing. Thus, the economy has to move quickly, in order for us to survive.

Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the Nairobi-Suswa train service and officiated at the ground breaking ceremony for the Naivasha Inland Container Depot.

Transport impacts the economy greatly, it affects how a business runs and whether a town will thrive. In the past, when we would travel to Western Kenya using the old road, Maai Mahiu road, Naivasha town was flourishing due to the business that motorists brought. When now the newer road through Limuru was constructed, business in Naivasha town slowed down. The main source of income for the town is now flower farming. What does this launch now mean for the economy?

Every economic decision taken today affects the lives of millions of people. Our elected representatives often travel to distant lands ostensibly to benchmark and transfer those ideas home. The question we must ask ourselves is: Just how beneficial are these trips seeing as they are costly?

A recent report showed that foreign travel, for Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) rose by a staggering 76.4 per cent from Ksh682 million ($6.82 million) to Ksh1.2 billion ($12 million).

According to the report, some of Kenya’s poorest counties in terms of their contribution to the country’s wealth or Gross Domestic Product also had disproportionately high average perks for MCAs.

When visions such as Agenda 2030 are not adhered to with the urgency they deserve, then goals will be mismatched. We will have a population that is aggrieved and an ignorant government.

The choices being made about who sits on particular boards, such as for the National Employment Authority, must be solid. Such a board needs someone with experience in economic issues, and with understanding of the times we are in, and the youth.

It is a dangerous place to be in, with a large young mass population and hardly any allies in sectors to come to workable solutions.

We must change the way we do the things we do...and we must not carry out reforms for their own sake.

Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is executive director of Siasa Place. Twitter: @NerimaW