The Chief Executive Officer of the Drylands Learning and Capacity Building Initiatives (DLCI) and Head of the Pastoralist Parliament Group (PPG) Secretariat, Jarso Mokku, has issued a powerful statement calling out leaders in Kenya’s northern frontier counties for betraying the very people they were elected to serve.
In a strongly worded message titled “The Real Enemies of Kenya’s Drylands Are Not Across the Border,” Mokku said that while the region has long decried marginalisation, the greatest threat to its progress now comes from within, from leaders who have “perfected the art of plunder.”
“For decades, the narrative of marginalisation has defined Kenya’s Northern Frontier counties,” Mokku said.
“We have spoken, rightly, of historical injustices, colonial neglect, and post-independence exclusion. But twelve years into devolution, it is time we confront a more uncomfortable truth: the betrayal from within.”
Mokku painted a grim picture of the situation in the north, where billions in devolved funds have failed to translate into meaningful development.
“The Northern Frontier counties are not poor because God cursed them; they are poor because their leaders have looted every coin meant for schools, hospitals, water, and roads,” he said, echoing sentiments by writer Wills Evan Otieno.
“This is not hyperbole. It is the lived reality of millions of pastoralist citizens who, despite billions in devolved funds, still drink from muddy wells, study under trees, and die from treatable diseases in empty health centres.”
He lamented that devolution, once seen as the key to liberation and local empowerment, has been hijacked by local elites.
“Devolution was meant to be our liberation. It brought hope that local governance would finally reflect local priorities,” Mokku said.
“But in too many counties, it has become a feeding trough for elites who have perfected the art of plunder. Governors and MPs, elected to serve, now parade in Nairobi in convoys of Prados, while their constituents walk for miles in search of water. The disconnect is obscene.”
The DLCI boss was categorical that devolution itself is not the problem; rather, it is the leaders who have sabotaged its promise through greed and moral failure.
“Let us be clear: the problem is not devolution. The problem is the deliberate sabotage of its promise by leaders who have chosen personal enrichment over public service,” he said. “These are not just governance failures; they are moral failures. And they are costing lives.”
Mokku urged the people of the North to stop blaming external forces for every challenge and instead confront the corruption and mismanagement in their own counties.
“Yes, insecurity, climate shocks, and underinvestment remain real challenges,” he said.
“But the rot within is just as dangerous. If we are to reclaim the dignity of the North, we must demand transparency, audit every shilling, and hold our leaders to account not just at election time, but every day.”
In his closing remarks, Mokku delivered a stark warning to corrupt leaders and a rallying call to citizens to demand change.
“The real enemies of the North are not across the border. They sit in county offices, sign inflated contracts, and silence dissent with handouts,” he declared.
“It is time we name them. And it is time we replace them with leaders who serve, not steal.”