Trylleformularen i Kenya er decentralisering – væk fra magten på få hænder til magt til flere – væk fra rige provinser, der stikker sugerøret dybt i statskassen, til fattige og tørkeramte yderprovinser – væk fra enerådende mænd til driftige kvinder.
NAIROBI, 25 March 2013 (IRIN): Whatever the outcome of Kenya’s disputed presidential race, this month’s elections have delivered a mighty boost to the process of decentralizing power from Nairobi, one designed to improve local governance and to reduce marginalization and the risk of conflict between communities.
With devolution (decentralisering), as the process is called, Kenya embarks on (står ud på) the most ambitious and rapid transformation of its government since independence.
“Devolution is geared to bring services, resources and power closer to the people. And this power means that citizens will be able to make decisions about aspects and issues affecting them directly,” said Elias Wakhisi, a programme officer at The Institute for Social Accountability (TISA).
This briefing provides an overview of these ambitions, the risks involved, the progress made and the steps ahead.
(Many of these themes are also explored in a recent IRIN film, Power to the People, part of the No Ordinary Elections series).
Why devolve?
Except for a few years after independence from Britain in 1963, Kenya has, since the colonial era, been a highly centralized state, with considerable executive power concentrated in the capital.
The Office of the President is the apex (toppen) of a hierarchical system of governance known as the provincial administration, which encompasses (tæller) a vast array of officials, from thousands of chiefs through eight provincial commissioners.
It is a system that leaves most citizens with no say over issues of local importance. Although city and district councils exist across the country, their power and resources are often negligible (ubetydelig).
With little money flowing to outer provinces for economic development, millions have migrated to Nairobi in search of work; the capital hosts a range of booming industries while rural areas – especially in far-flung arid regions – have mostly languished (vansmægtet).
According to a Society for International Development (SID) report, Kenya is one of the most unequal societies in the world.
The remote northeastern Mandera County has the poorest access to services. There, the number of public hospital beds per resident is a tenth of the figure in better-off areas, such as the Central Highlands, according to a 2011 World Bank report.
In Wajir, also in the northeast, 79 percent of children are at risk of chronic malnutrition, compared to 16 percent in the coastal Mombasa County.
“I think devolution under the new constitution is good because it brings many things closer. So now services are within reach, unlike under the old one, when you could die waiting for Nairobi to respond,” Lucas Lotieng, a pastoralist (nomade) in the northwestern Turkana County, told IRIN.
Additionally, disparities (uligheder) in power and resources have often fallen along ethnic lines. Though the country has 42 ethnic groups, only a handful of have dominated the political landscape.
What is being devolved, exactly?
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97726/Looming-food-crisis-in-the-Central-African-Republic
(sådan lyder det korrekte link mandag, såfremt dette ændres, indsætter redaktionen det nye link)
