The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) has faulted the political narratives that are still the talk of the town in different parts of the country. In the state of the nation address issued by KCCB officials in Nairobi on Friday, the state of devolution, scourge of corruption and the political stability of the country were highlighted among other things. The KCCB Chairman Rt. Rev. Philip Anyolo said it’s disturbing that some sections of politicians are endlessly in a campaigning mode, and are obsessed with the coming 2022 elections instead of focusing on solving the pertinent issues affecting Kenyans. “That is why we find the 2022 succession politics extremely unhealthy, retrogressive, time wasting, and selfish,” he said.
Furthermore, he said there is a need to look at the whole electoral system, whether its the best way of producing results and consequently, the nation’s leaders. “We have seen that it is open to manipulation and has entrenched the evil of vote buying and other forms of bribery,” said the KCCB chairman. He said the roundtable conference should look for ways of investing in democratic institutions and ways of strengthening the role of the opposition in order to keep in check the government in power.
On devolution, they noted that it’s a step forward for the country and Counties in particular. However, they noted that some County governments aren’t pursuing development in their respective regions. “Unfortunately there are those who are there to loot, plunder and steal the money allocated to their respective Counties. There is nothing to show of the billions of money allocated to them,” said Anyolo. He expressed their disappointment with County governments who instead of growing the economy and improving the lives of their people, are busy employing their political cronies and relatives to top positions, and worse still aren’t addressing the issue of unemployment. He said some Counties practise open tribalism which contributes to the destruction of the country, “In these Counties, only people from the dominant tribe are employed,” said the KCCB chair.