“The tragedy in Africa is poverty of leadership,” said Kenyan politician Hon. Oloo Aringo during Africa Lead’s Super Champions for Change training session at the 2nd Annual Devolution Conference in Kisumu 21–24 April 2015. The event, attended by several thousand participants, including dozens of Kenyan governors, senators, Congress members, and the U.S. Ambassador, was a call to action against food insecurity. The Q&A featured an emotional request from a government leader for a copy of the powerful speech, challenging herself and her colleagues to “play it over and over again in our governors’ offices so we can internalize the message.”
Mr. Aringo’s dramatic style of speaking and his strong words not only captivated the audience in the moment, but led many attendees to commit to action down the road.
The Super Champions training was the first of three targeted activities by Africa Lead to support the devolution process, Kenya’s great political challenge of the day, and one of USAID/Kenya’s top strategic priorities. Having won the attention of many county governors, Africa Lead followed with the Champions for Change leadership training, a 5-day course to build the capacity of managers in developing and leading agriculture policy and programming change.
Bomet County Governor Isaac Ruto, then the sitting Chairman of Kenya’s Council of Governors (COG), the representational body of Kenya’s 47 counties, was first in line. He insisted that 60 of his managers be trained—instead of 30 as planned—and he offered county funds to cover the additional expenses. Instant demand for the training had been created.
This enthusiasm opened the door for Africa Lead to multiply the training. In four months, Africa Lead trained more than 340 Champions in 10 Feed the Future counties. This enthusiasm was further expressed by a sense of ownership. Homa Bay County representatives, for instance, asked to examine the curriculum prior to the training and made suggestions to tailor the program for its needs.
The 30 Homa Bay participants —financed by the County—commuted three hours each day to attend the program. COG leadership took notice and requested the training for its own staff, eventually approaching Africa Lead with the idea of taking ownership of county training services. One COG executive suggested that the service would give the COG a sense of purpose.
Africa Lead was the first to pilot organizational capacity assessments of Kenyan county governments. The first two assessments revealed serious deficiencies, not surprising given the infancy of these organizations. Although Africa Lead lacks the resources to support a comprehensive county government strengthening program across Kenya, the methodology and information from these initial assessments will prove valuable to other partners including USAID’s Agile Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions (AHADI) and the World Bank’s Performance for Rewards project scheduled to begin in July 2016.
There is no denying that building strong, democratic county governments will take time. But all change starts with committed leadership, and if the recent actions of Governor Ruto and other county leaders are indicative, Kenya’s counties are on the right path. This is no tragedy.