When the Governors convened the Devolution Conference in Kirinyaga County, the Conference them was “remaining accountable”. But along the way theme changed to “Remaining Protected” and the agenda was three pronged:

1. How to eat without being caught
2. How to negotiate your freedom when caught.
3. How to survive in prison if you fail to negotiate your freedom.

And because actions speak louder than words,  as an illustration of their intentions, the host, Kirinyaga county, distributed free 100,000 male condoms and for gender balance, 50,000 female ones. That first important bit taken care off, the delegates set to work.

Narok county, sensing that they had nothing to display, decided that one Narok is as good as another. So they crossed the border to Mau Narok in Nakuru county and bought some beans and peas that they polished nicely. This done, they arranged the beans and peas, punctuated by a potato here and a bushel of barley there, then  displayed them to visitors as Narok produce.
Meanwhile back home, tourist had two options should the unforgiving call of nature beckon; either use a pee bottle or risk a vital body part being bitten off by some wild animal because there no places to relieve oneself on your to and from Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Embu County brought nice photos of their county government in session. They did a good job hiding the shame of long hours their governor spends in courts fighting off accusation after another. They however did not do a very good job of protecting the identity and location of these county offices. Roasters Inn in Nairobi, 100km away.

At the Kisumu County exhibition booth,  four men welcomed guest with stone-faces without leaving their their “sina taabu” stools. They could not. They were protecting the life-size banner of Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o’s pre-election manifesto. They were visibly lonely in that tent; you would have been too, had you been in their shoes, because no man would like to be the one being displayed as the face of incompetence in a county that just launched a refurbished water hyacinth dredger that works slower than a kitchen spoon.

Then there’s Homa Bay County, where whoever had been hired to man the tent went MIA to protect his image. No wants to be the poster girl for a county where MCAs beat up their Assembly Speaker.  At least they didn’t waste public money trying to create the potemkin village. Their tent was as eerie empty.