Power, greed and fight for billions at the heart of devolution crisis

President William Ruto and other leaders during Easter Sunday service in Ntulele, Narok County. [PCS]

When it was conceptualised, devolution was supposed to devolve resources from Nairobi to counties. However, 12 years after its introduction, the full implementation as envisaged in the constitution has been impeded by multiple hurdles and created many theaters of conflict and layered enmity.

It is turning out that the central government, governors, Members of Parliament and ward representatives are some of the existential threats to devolution, according to a section of leaders and civil society organisations.

The national government has been accused of undermining devolution by withholding resources and certain functions from county governments.

Critics point to inconsistencies in resource allocation, delayed transfers of funds and functions, and a lack of effective consultation between the national and county governments as evidence of this.

According to Kenya Devolution Civil Society Organizations Working Group, President William Ruto failed to fulfill his promise to surrender all devolved functions to the county governments.

Some of the functions that the national government has been accused of withholding include health, agriculture and infrastructure with Kenya Human Rights and Institute for Social Accountability stating that the move has denied counties at least Sh271 billion.

"The President has twice reneged on his promise to transfer devolved functions to county governments, which, had it been done, at least Sh271 billion would have gone to counties to alleviate the suffering of people," said Cornelius Oduor of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

The Council of Governors (COG) has also accused President Ruto's administration of waging a covert war against devolution.

The governors described the national government's move to reduce county allocation from Sh40 billion to Sh38 billion as a calculated assault on their ability to deliver services with the CoG Vice Chairman Mutahi Kahiga asserting that the move was not a one-off misstep but part of a sustained campaign to undermine devolution.

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that these systematic budgetary cuts are designed to cripple county governments, hindering effective service delivery, and ultimately discredit and kill the devolved system of governance," said Kahiga

The COG also accused the national government of treating devolution casually, pointing to the Treasury's claim that the counties lack the capacity to absorb these additional resources in the 2025/2026 financial year.

"By purposefully underfunding county governments, the national government is creating a crisis, only to turn around and put counties on the spot for failing to deliver essential services," said COG.

The President, while in Narok, pleaded with governors to allow him manage the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), arguing that he would be more efficient and lead to improved infrastructure and enhanced connectivity across the country.

"I would like to ask the honourable members here that I am aware there is an ongoing battle between county governments and Parliament, especially on the road maintenance funds. If you leave the funds to me, I will fund all these road projects because with that money, you take it and build a small murram road from here to there, and after one day of rain, it's all washed away," Ruto said.

Ruto's claims attracted criticism from governors who accused him of trying to kill devolution with Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyong'o observing that the President was on a mission to suspend the Constitution back to pre-devolution times.

The raging debate on who are the enemies of devolution is likely to tear apart the broad based arrangement because while Ruto was supporting the national government to manage the roads levy fund, ODM leader Raila Odinga, accused MPs of sabotaging devolution.

Raila said the legislators were competing with the county chiefs to implement projects that are not within their mandate while frustrating the release of resources to counties.

According to Raila, devolution was not working because of the push and pull between national and county governments and the MPs have taken advantage of this to frustrate devolution.

He said it is absurd for MPs not to allocate funds to counties only for them to accuse Governors of not delivering to the people and corruption.

"Don't keep money with you and then you accuse Governors of corruption or not delivering. If a Governor is corrupt, we will deal with him, but do not hold money. Governors must have money and power," he said.

Raila said the court has pronounced itself and made a decision that CDF is unconstitutional and that decision should be respected by MPs.

"There is a lot of money that is supposed to come to the counties but it is being held by the national government and also because of some other monies like CDF. MPs are still holding fuel levies that are meant to come to counties because they want to construct roads as contractors. They also want to construct hospitals and schools, which is not their role," he added.

Governors who are supposed to deliver the developments to the last mile have turned out to be the enemies of devolution if the report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) is anything to go by.

From presenting themselves as mini Presidents, the county bosses have been accused of milking county coffers dry even as they engage in expensive trips and inflating tenders and initiating ghost projects despite heavy funding.

According to EACC, the most prevalent malpractices in the counties include embezzlement of public funds, conflict of interest, procurement fraud, payroll fraud mainly through ghost workers, fraudulent pending bills and blatant disregard of laws relating to prudent management of public affairs.

In their report released two years ago, the commission reported that it had arraigned a total of nine current and former governors in graft cases, that are both criminal and civil in nature.

Ex-governors Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu) and Daniel Waithaka (Nyandarua) were found guilty of corruption and procurement irregularities respectively.

Other former governors who have battled corruption cases included Moses Lenolkulal (Samburu) Okoth Obado (Migori) Mike Sonko (Nairobi) Sospeter Ojamong (Siaya) Mwangi Wa Iria (Muranga) among others.