As the clock ticks towards February 2022 when many public servants eying various political seats should resign, it’s becoming obvious that the Gubernatorial seat will attract many such candidates. It is expected that counties and for that matter the citizens will have a checklist or a manifesto through which such candidates will be evaluated and hence voted for or against. The first checklist should be whether the candidate has expertise, knowledge, and willingness to deliver the 14 county functions as per the fourth schedule of the 2010 constitution. Many people can deliver and offer leadership but not all such people have the willingness to deliver and some of them might just be looking for avenues for self-praise – they want just to be called “His/her Excellency”, with no tangible desire to uplift the lives of the ordinary people.
Since human beings are not objects to be subjected to tests as we would do for the scientific specimens, the only way to gauge if such a candidate can do what they promise is to look at their previous track records/ performance/ leadership skills exhibited before and when they hadn’t expressed such interests for election. Secondly, gubernatorial candidates should demonstrate high standards and credentials to positively change our counties and enhance our achievement of vision 2030, can they deliver such projects, do they understand Vision 2030? Thirdly, examine whether they have the ability/capability to offer strategic guidance, good/sound management, and leadership, including resource mobilization, partnerships & collaboration in project execution skills since national government cannot finance all county projects. These skills should include effective utilization, planning and deployment of human resources. They should be able to employ effective tasks and duties delegation and supervision of staff for enhanced results in the counties.
Fourthly, can they promote local economic development activities by balancing local taxation on one hand and encouraging growth of more businesses? Can they create an enabling environment for business to thrive, including mainstreaming traders/hawkers into local economy? Can they eliminate and reduce instances of marginalization, remoteness and hence inclusivity in county affairs? In other words, the bar for electing governors is high and as such, we should ensure that only those who can meet such a high threshold of services can be elected. They have immense opportunities to change the lives of the citizenry if they strategize
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 