Raila Odinga hits out at county commissioners

Rusinga, Kenya: CORD leader Raila Odinga has maintained that Provincial Administration officers must be eliminated for proper implementation of devolution.

Raila, who was speaking on Rusinga Island, Mbita Consituency, during the burial of former Luo Council of Elders vice chairman John Anditi, reiterated that the Provincial Administration was an obstacle to implementation of county governments.

"It is unfortunate that there are officers at every level of administration in our counties. If we look at the governor, there is a county commissioner; sub-county administrator has a deputy county commissioner and so on. I don't think this is the devolved system we fought for," Raila said.

He said the existence of the officers was depriving governors of some of their responsibilities, adding that this was jeopardising county government operations.

"We have witnessed situations where a governor and a county commissioner read from different scripts on matters meant for the benefit of their own people. We want a governor to be given full mandate of all operations in the county to avoid such conflicts," Raila added.

He said the intention of devolved government was not to render the officers jobless, adding that the State should give them other jobs. He called on the Government to devolve both secondary and primary education to give every governor an opportunity to uplift education standards in their counties.