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Through the 11 years of devolution, a supremacy battle between governors and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) has dominated nearly all the 47 counties.

This war has wielded three distinct characteristics—threats of impeachment of governors by MCAs, retaliatory letters to the President seeking dissolution of county governments and ugly scenes such as fist fights within and outside the chambers among rival MCA factions.

The common point of conflict has been the MCAs’ demand for ward development kitties. Most Assemblies have been demanding allocation to this kitty from the county exchequers, with the MCA as patron of the fund.

The Controller of Budget has previously termed the kitty illegal over likely duplicity of projects under the kitty with those undertaken by key line dockets through County Executive Committee members.

Ironically, in most impeachment proceedings that I remember from the current and former Senate, this fund has been a glaring grievance cited by MCAs against the governor.

This issue came up in the just concluded impeachment proceedings against Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza, whose dismissal from office the Senate rejected.

In the words of wisdom shared by senators after the Special Committee’s tabling of its report on the botched impeachment, this very issue came up, and was canvassed at length by the House.

Despite Kenya having one of the world’s most progressive constitutions, her citizens have a unique perception of leadership. Kenyans are notorious for sending home most elected leaders, particularly MPs and MCAs, every election cycle.

In the mind of ordinary Kenyans, demonstrable leadership to warrant a re-election must stem from tangible grassroots initiatives in delivery of the development projects.

The clamour for a Ward development kitty is not unique. Last year, my colleagues in the National Assembly went to the August 9 election with a Supreme Court verdict on the legality of the Constituency Development Fund hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles. The court ruled that the fund was illegal because it was structured in a manner that entangles MPs, beyond their primary constitutional mandate of legislation and oversight.

The National Assembly, in consultation with new Attorney General, former House Speaker Justin Muturi, somehow managed to reverse the adverse implications of that verdict.

In his opinion on CDF, Muturi said NG-CDF 2015 technically remained in force, as the ruling in question was in reference to the older CDF Act of 2013.

He, however, advised the National Assembly to amend the law to streamline it to the Supreme Court judgement, in light of a separate upcoming verdict specifically on NG-CDF 2015.

CDF as a fund has done wonders, and if the Ward Development Fund is aligned to a similar model, more development will be witnessed at the grassroots without subjecting elected leaders to unnecessary pressure from the public.

At the tail end of the last Parliament, then Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata attempted to rationalise MCAs demands for the ward kitty, through the County Wards Development Equalisation Bill.

The bill had suggested that the fund should constitute at least eight per cent of the share of annual revenue allocated to each county. We passed the bill in the Senate but it was shot down at the National Assembly prompting its subjection to a mediation committee. The committee unfortunately never met, thus the bill lapsed with the end of the last Parliament.

The panic in the National Assembly after the Supreme Court verdict on CDF should serve as a wakeup call to my counterparts in that House to embrace bipartisanism, when we approach them with a similar bill on the MCAs ward kitty or the Senate oversight fund which we have been separately fighting for.

The President and his Cabinet have huge development allocations, so do governors. Members of the National Assembly have CDF. Why discriminate against MCAs and Senators?

Devolution was arguably the greatest gift from the 2010 Constitution, and we must find ways to prevent its downfall from these endless wrangles between MCAs and governors and strengthen the senate oversight work.

—The writer is the Senator for Kilifi and Senate Minority Leader