Enough is enough. Procurement in our counties has been captured by a small, powerful elite sitting in offices far from the projects they claim to deliver.
They sign papers, award tenders, and move money in boardrooms, while the people who are meant to benefit from these projects are left in the dark. This must end. Procurement must be unbundled to the ward level and opened to the people.
Here is the truth: all development happens in a ward. Even State House is in a ward. Every road, every clinic, every water borehole, every school is rooted in a local community. If the work is done in a ward, it should be procured in that ward. Not in the County Treasury building. Not in the Governor’s office.
Centralised procurement is the breeding ground of corruption. It is where contracts are inflated beyond reason, where ghost projects are born, and where a handful of connected individuals eat while the rest of the community is left with half-finished structures and promises that never materialise.
This is why it is a fortress of secrecy. Decisions are made away from public scrutiny, and once the money is gone, it is gone forever.
We must turn the tables. Imagine a system where no contractor is paid until the people themselves confirm that the work is complete and meets the agreed standard. Imagine residents, local leaders, and community representatives inspecting every project before the cheque is signed. That is how you keep thieves out of public funds. That is how you ensure value for every shilling.
This is not just about transparency. It is about ownership. When people know a project is theirs, they protect it, they push for its completion, and they hold those responsible to account.
When procurement is left in the hands of distant offices, the only people with a stake in it are the ones signing the contracts and cashing the cheques.
The Senate must act. It must pass a law dismantling the central control of County spending entities and returning power to the people.
This law should make it mandatory for procurement to be handled where the project will be implemented. It should give the public a binding role in approving payments. Without this legal backbone, the cartels will not let go of their grip.
Opponents of this idea will claim decentralisation will slow things down. That is a lie. Centralisation has not sped anything up. What it has done is speed up theft. It has created layers of bureaucracy that hide corruption and delay real progress.Public procurement is the single largest pipeline of government money.
When it is controlled by a few, it becomes a feeding trough for the corrupt. When it is watched over by the community, it becomes a tool for real change.
This is a fight for accountability. A fight for fairness. A fight to make sure that development is not a speech in the County Assembly but a road you can walk on, a clinic you can visit, a school where your children actually learn.
The fortress of secrecy must be brought down. Procurement must return to the people. Ward-level procurement, anchored in law and guarded by public representatives, is not a radical dream. It is the only way to ensure that every coin meant for development does what it is meant to do transform lives.