One of the most celebrated achievements of the country ‘s new Constitution past in 2010, was ushering in of devolved governments, after decades of imbalance in resource allocations under a centralised government.
With the Transition Authority having been put in place months to the March 4 general election, Kenyans were optimistic the 47 country governments will take-off smoothly after election of governors, county assembly representatives, and nomination come approval of County Executive Committees.
But over two months after the general election, confusion is the order of the day as far as take-off of county governments is concerned. Governors are up in arms, accusing Government of starving devolved units funds and re-directing the money to roll out Jubilee pre-election pledges.
The Treasury is being accused of usurping the mandate of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) chaired by Micah Cheserem, which has under Article 216 of the Constitution been given the responsibility to develop the fairest formula to share national revenue among the counties.
Worse still, business has been paralysed in the 47 County Assemblies across the country after members boycotted sittings from Wednesday to protest alleged poor pay.
Governors have argued the much-anticipated development in the 47 counties will not kick off this year, if they only receive money for recurrent expenditure. That means full transition to devolved units, that was to take three years, will have to stretch further beyond the set timeframe. It means Kenyans are not going to see equitable resources for development, that they have been yearning for, trickle down to the grassroots soon.
It’s high time government acted decisively to put devolution back on track by sorting the under-funding question and poor pay cries from members of county assemblies.
So far, Deputy President William Ruto has made some good efforts towards this end, after he held a meeting to sort out the stalemate between the Treasury and CRA, where he announced that counties will get Sh210 billion up from an earlier figure of Sh198 billion. However, more needs to be undertaken for a smooth take-off of county governments. President Uhuru has personally pledged to support devolution, and he should ensure the process remains on track. Leaving devolution to derail would be a blow to the fruits of a new constitution Kenyans fought for, and only realised after two decades of toil.
