Often, common people do not know what is good for them.

That is why, in a properly functioning country, someone has got to be the adult who routinely checks the infantile predilections of the general population.

Take the misplaced excitement over devolution, for example.

The chattering classes have been ceaseless in painting a fantasy world in which everything will go to the counties.

Some even suggest that up to 40 per cent of national revenue should be deployed to the county governments to be enjoyed by village bumpkins.

Now, no country can run on a Constitution that allows every Tom, Dick and Mary to know what is good for them. We have Vision 2030, you know.

Stuff the Constitution and its communist leanings that require the public to participate in budgeting, planning and spending resources.

Clearly, the people who wrote that Constitution, and especially the chapter on public finance, would not know a budget if it bit them on the right leg.

The woolly-headed insistence on collaboration and cooperation between the county and national government negates the fact that the latter is always the big brother of the other.

In any case, agreements reached between Treasury and the International Monetary Fund obviously supersede the Constitution.

If the IMF will not bend to the Constitution -- a local arrangement between Kenyans to which it is not party -- the Constitution must bend to the logic of international finance.

Who in their right mind would put money in the hands of yet-to-be-known thieving county bumpkins when there are trusted expert hands at Treasury?

The legal adventures of the Taskforce on Devolution in its attempts to create separate finance management laws for the national and county governments, as well as another to regulate inter-governmental fiscal relations, is the height of political chicanery.

That committee should have concentrated on the political and administrative roles of the county governments and left the adult conversations about money to Treasury and the IMF.

Even though the Constitution allows counties to be governments and to borrow loans, they should do so only with the permission of Treasury, which is under the control of the national government.

The Treasury has got to become more powerful even if the Constitution creates the Commission on Revenue Allocation and the Director of Budget to take over some of its traditional functions.

It must act as the prefect of the counties, even if the Constitution gives that role to other offices.

Parliament may have been given the role of budgeting, but surely, an egg-head economist must be able to rationalise the wishful ramblings of financially illiterate people.

And then, of course, the pomp and ceremony of reading the budget has got to be brought back somehow.

Money is a serious thing best left to grave people with gravitas, economic degrees and an appreciation of global economics.

Treasury knows who can do accounts and audit books. That is why it must exclusively hire every book-keeper and accountant for the county governments.

It would be unreasonable to expect people in county governments to understand the intricacies of dealing with the IMF and its sister, the International Bank for Reconstruction, also known as the World Bank.

These two institutions have been responsible for some of Kenya's highest moments in recent memory.

When Kenya's healthcare system was groaning under the weight of too many patients, did not the IMF and the World Bank save the country by introducing cost-sharing and thus keeping all those hypochondriacs and malingerers away from hospital?

When Kenya was producing useless graduates, did not the Bretton Woods institutions helpfully suggest a reduction in education in order to create more manual labour that would power the economy?

When free primary education was being introduced, did they not say what a bad idea it was and nearly saved the country from itself?

When the country was on the brink of self-destructing by launching the ill-advised Constituency Development Fund, did they not weigh in on the side of reason?

When it comes to devolution, Kenya would do well to listen to sagacious advice of the IMF, the World Bank and the people who keep their company.

Giving too much autonomy to people who have never handled money creates the risk of waste, theft and mismanagement.

Money needs to be placed in one basket that is centrally controlled and watched.

The excessive and unnecessary autonomy the Constitution creates through devolution is good on paper but likely to be fatal in practice as it is parasitic and not good for the economy.

Obviously, the people who were suggesting devolution for Kenya do not know the benefits and cost savings of centralised financial management and administration, especially in matters finance.