Just as George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, has come to refer to truly evil government, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has come to refer to a creation that turns on its creator.

Watching Kenya’s devolution experiment, the impression one gets is not of a structured process, administered by reasonable people as envisaged by the Constitution, but a chaotic Tower of Babel, overseen by Kanu types with an eye not on posterity but on personal gain.

Devolution is a game-changing idea. After 50 years of centralised incompetence, favouritism and wastage, it was meant to give people ownership of the development process, allowing them to choose their development priorities.

It was also meant to bring government closer to the people, giving them access to services. The Kanu model of government had reduced a once-promising country into a kleptocracy and an Orwellian nightmare.

So devolution represented a radical development and governance philosophy. And yet devolution, as it is being experienced in Kenya, has taken on eerily familiar shades.

Let me start with the most worrisome flaw in our devolution experiment — the institutionalisation of tribalism. As is well known, the elites that have ruled Kenya only paid lip service to a national consciousness.

In reality, politics in Kenya came to mean manipulating ethnic identity in order to secure wealth and power. The tribal groupings of Kamatusa (Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu Association) and Gema (Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association), employed to devastating effect by the regimes of Daniel Moi and Jomo Kenyatta respectively, left a populace fearful of a tribe not allied to them assuming power.

Now, devolution, which aimed to give every community equal access to development, and therefore lessen tribal resentment, could in fact be having the effect of institutionalising tribalism.

The administrative boundaries of the 47 devolved units largely coincide with the traditional boundaries of our ethnic territories; indeed, democracy activist Okiya Omtata has described our model of devolution as having been designed around who we are as opposed to who we want to become. This means that ethnic consciousness now has legal and administrative force.

Consider the foregoing in light of the following: First, there have been outbreaks of deadly violence between communities over border disputes, as if counties were now independent countries exercising separate sovereignties.

Second, no Kenyan, no matter how gifted, can ever hope to become a governor of a county populated by people not of his tribe. Third, heartrending stories are beginning to surface of young qualified Kenyans being told to “go to their counties” to look for jobs.

Now if you add to this tribal conundrum discovery of oil and other natural sources in some counties, it is not difficult to trace the trajectory of our devolution experiment.

Then we devolved wastage and corruption. The first county budgets set aside obscene amounts for allowances and other benefits for the new bosses.

Then, Members of the County Assemblies began travelling the world to learn about development. Yes, they need to be taught to build schools and clinics where there are none. Additionally, counties seem unable to absorb the funds allocated to them.

Reasonable voices arguing that funds and functions to counties be increased commensurately with increased capacity are drowned out by near-neurotic howling for more functions and more funds.

Lastly, there is devolved megalomania. The Kanu regime spent huge resources and intellectual energies to recreate the president as a demigod: Ever increasing titles, ever expanding motorcades, ever increasing security detail, etc, a state of affairs sharing many aspects with the movie, The Dictator.

Now, our governors insist on ostentatious titles, have chase cars, and camera crews follow them as they dispense their benevolence to thankful residents.

Worryingly, governors refuse to be accountable to the Senate. Governors allied to Jubilee ban opposition rallies in their counties, while those allied to the opposition hurl abuse at the president and his deputy. One governor has even countermanded an order by the deputy president.

Now these budding tinpot dictators are demanding to have control of police functions! God help us.

The question is: Will our model of devolution lead to the further decay of Kenya and its eventual dismemberment?

Tee Ngugi is a political and social commentator based in Nairobi.