Three cheers for gains from devolution in Kenya

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provided for a new devolved system of government. The March 2013 General Election marked the beginning of devolution, which saw several key functions and resources transferred by the national government to the 47 county governments.

For the last three years, the Council of Governors has been organising annual Devolution Conferences that bring together stakeholders to take stock of, and celebrate the achievements, reflect on the challenges and map the way forward. This year’s Devolution Conference took place between April 19 and 23, 2016 at the Meru National Polytechnic in Meru County. 

Devolution has provided Kenya with an opportunity to accelerate development and work towards achieving Vision 2030 – Kenya’s development blueprint and the global 2030 development agenda - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 agenda is centred on 17 SDGs – a global action plan to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.

The 17 goals are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. Goal five on gender equality seeks to realise the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Kenya is one of the countries that contributed to the drafting of the SDGs, has a progressive constitution, strong constitutional oversight commissions and a vibrant civil society, all of which form a strong foundation for the successful implementation of the SDGs. 

Women are key to the success of devolution. Addressing gender inequalities is an opportunity to drive economic growth, have peaceful communities, protection of human rights and democratic governance, all of which contribute to better quality lives for all Kenyans.

At the county level, the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) have mostly been inclusive of women, youth and persons with disability.

Inequalities including gender inequality, have over the years contributed to some of the challenges that counties are facing. Gender inequality reduces productivity by women and slows down economic growth.

During the conference, for example, the Governor of Mandera County Hon. Ali Roba noted that the first caesarian section in Mandera County was carried out only after the introduction of devolution – 50 years on after Kenya’s independence. Healthcare is fully devolved and increased personnel, infrastructure and improved quality of care are some of the benefits of devolved health services.

To ensure the promise of devolution is realised for all Kenyans, it is important to address the gender inequalities that contribute to challenges such as high maternal mortality rates, dropping-out of girls and boys from school, which results in limited personnel in some of the counties and gender based violence.

How do we proceed? Conference participants emphasised on the need for increased dialogue and a stronger relationship between the national government and the county governments to sustain the gains made so far. There were repeated calls to ensure a peaceful and seamless transition from the current national and county leadership after the 2017 General Election to safeguard the gains made to date.

In addition, the following aspects of devolution were highlighted as needing attention so as to address the challenges being faced in the implementation of devolution: automation of revenue collection; increasing the allocation of equitable shareable revenue from the national government to county governments; timely disbursement of funds by the national government to county governments to ensure uninterrupted service delivery; deliberate inclusion of women, youth and persons with disability in policy formulation and decision making; restructuring of State corporations to avoid duplication of roles; strengthening technical capacity of the Inter-governmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC); aligning of county government frameworks for civic education and public participation with the national frameworks and the review of agreements on the transfer of functions between national and county governments.

In all these areas, addressing the intersection with gender inequality is critical. For Kenya to thrive and achieve Vision 2030, the dialogue regarding the challenges highlighted above must have inclusive solutions where no one is left behind.

This means that perhaps cultural practices and attitudes that hamper equal participation and appreciation of all Kenyan citizens need to be challenged.
Going forward, we aim to achieve sustainable and equitable development that guarantees all citizens – female and male – equal access and opportunities to the benefits of devolution which will result into social, economic and political gains for all Kenyans.