Former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter, who also served at the Energy docket, tells Sunday Nation reporter Walter Menya about the intrigues at both dockets and how a trip to Tanzania to negotiate a pipeline turned to a nightmare, power costs and the intrigues in government.
In March 2016, at the height of the discussions on the proposed oil pipeline to export Uganda’s oil, you and other senior government officials had your passports confiscated and denied access by Tanzanian officials. What happened?
I think that was something small. What happened is we were there with my colleague from Uganda, the Minister for Energy and Petroleum, and one of the reasons she came here was that she wanted to see the line from Lamu.
We flew from Lamu all the way to Hoima. Then, they were also talking about Tanzania and wanted to see the Tanga Port and we flew there. When we got there, our planes were cleared to land in Tanga but then the Tanzanians said they would only clear Ugandans and not Kenyans.
They held our passports. Wherever you travel to another country, you leave your passport with the immigration, so they held them. When it was about 5pm and we wanted to go back because we did not want to spend the night there, they were waiting for some senior person to give the clearance.
After about half an hour, they gave us our passports and we left.
How was that experience for you?
Those are experiences you get to go through in life and at least, we managed it. We did not see it as a big issue and that is why it did not become a diplomatic row. We just left it and moved on.
Still on that subject of the oil pipeline, what tipped that deal in favour of Tanzania over Kenya, according to you?
I think the companies which were playing a role. The investors, especially on the Ugandan side, I think it was Total, had more influence to push it through because they were the one’s funding it.
Tullow and the other companies were not. Right now, Total has come to Kenya, not in a big way though.
I think they were protecting their interests and convinced Uganda that it is a long route.
It is almost 2,000 kilometres but here in Kenya it would have been some 600 kilometres to Turkana from Hoima, then another 800 kilometres to Lamu, which is 1,400 kilometres.
Your term at the Ministry of Energy was marked with scandals that saw the key parastatals under the ministry, Kenya Pipeline and Kenya Power, among others, accused of corruption that led to the departures of their CEOs. Would you take responsibility for those scandals?
I think I saw it on the news about the issue of Kenya Power and I want those cases to end speedily. If you look at the accusations of those senior management, I was at a meeting which led to them being arrested.
But since they are in court, I would want to see the cases concluded because I do not want to prejudice the cases.
I was never called as a witness in the Kenya Power or Pipeline cases. I do not want to comment but I want those cases to be concluded speedily.
You were the energy CS from 2016 and stayed there for about five years. What in your view, during that experience, is the problem with Kenya Power?
It is like any other business. It is a commercial entity. If you look at all the power companies across the world, they are going through turmoil.
You have heard of Eskom in South Africa. It went through that. Kenya Power, at that time, changed their management.
Now, I think there are about five bosses that came after Tarus and his team left, then Ngugi came and left and now there is an acting CEO. It is a question of restructuring only and moving on. For me, the power utility, the system losses and everything as highlighted in some of the reports are things that cut across.
What do you think would have to happen for the cost of power to come down as directed by the president?
We had made proposals during my tenure and I think since the president pronounced the 30 per cent cost cuts, we will wait for the implementation.
It is said that the John Ngumi committee report could have been the trigger for your transfer from the Ministry of Energy to Devolution. Did you see their report and to what extent did you agree with its findings and recommendations?
I did not see anywhere I was mentioned in the report. I cannot say my transfer from Energy to Devolution was triggered by that report.
I treated it as a normal transfer and I am grateful because for the few months I was there, I learnt about devolution and I know a lot of things that I am going to implement in Kericho.
There are some people who think I have been thrown in the muddy water and maybe there is food in that water, which I really caught in Devolution.
My experience there was only three months; I wish I had been able to stay there for another one year. There are a lot of things I would have achieved.
We have set the grounds, whoever is taking over, should take care of it during the next eight months. There are a lot of things to be done. I do not want to say anything about the report because it never mentioned me.
You were moved from the Ministry of Energy, a powerful and visible docket, to a stripped down Ministry of Devolution with just a single State department. How did you view this deployment? Some people thought you have would have resigned at that time because of the apparent demotion but you did not.
Well, I was still a minister earning the same salary. I was privileged to get confidential reports in Devolution which I was not even getting as the Minister for Energy.
In terms of the prestige, the original ministry was that of the Local Government. It was a very powerful one.
You remember when Mudavadi was there, even Uhuru, the president, was once the Minister for Local Government. It is exactly the same. It is only that the structures have changed a bit.
For me, a ministry is a ministry. Remember when Michuki was moved from Finance to Agriculture, he did his work. When William was moved from Agriculture to Higher Education, he did work.
When you are being appointed, when being employed by somebody, there can be a meeting held today and there is restructuring and you are told your expertise is needed in some other place. That is it. That is how I consider myself.
One of the challenges for counties is the delays for disbursement of funds and you have been in the ministry. With that experience that you are taking to the ground, how do you think this issue can be solved so that counties get their money on time and operations do not stall?
I think we need to change the over-reliance on disbursed funds from the national government. I do not think it is enough to support devolution. We need to think outside the box.
We, for the first time, approved borrowing by the Laikipia County government to the tune of Sh1.2billion to fund infrastructure through a bond. In essence, all the counties have been waiting on the national government to collect and then remit.
I think that as we continue, we need to perfect it so that instead of waiting for three months, we get it in maybe two months. Counties must also think outside the box.
Besides the delays in disbursement, there is also an issue with local revenue generation. If you are elected, how will you approach that?
I think we need to digitalise the system of collecting revenues. There is a bill which we are working with the Treasury and the Controller of budgets.
All counties have different systems. We need to have one system that is linked to the national government. If you see the Ifmis,
they are all connected. But when you go to the revenue they are all different and they do not talk to one another. That is something we need to digitise because going manual, accountability becomes a challenge.
If you realise under the defunct municipalities and the local authorities, they used to collect a lot of money. This is one of the things I will be giving priority. The markets today are in pathetic conditions yet they are the hubs of businesses nowadays.
Can you make them clean the way it has been done in Kisumu?
Without bias, Kisumu has really tried. It is a clean city. BY DAILY NATION