Government pledges seamless transfer of devolved functions

The national government has reiterated commitment to transfer the pending devolved functions to the counties by end of February.

The Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) said the transferred functions will be followed by resources which have been a bone of contention between the two levels of government.

This emerged during a meeting between the IGRTC and the Co-operatives and MSMEs Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui (pictured) at Sawela Lodge, Naivasha.

The committee exuded confidence of finishing the transfer of devolved functions next month.

Mr Chelugui said the government would ensure seamless transfer of devolved functions as enshrined in the Constitution to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.

“After the summit which was shared by the President, we agreed on the timelines on the transfer of all the pending functions and this is on course,” he said.

Addressing the press on the sidelines of the meeting, Chelugui said that the issue of resources for the pending functions was being handled by the Commission of Revenue Allocation.

“There have been questions on whether the resources will follow the devolved functions and this will be taken care of by the Commission of Revenue Allocation,” he said.

The CS revealed that all co-operative functions and resources would be transferred in the ongoing process that is expected to end in February.

He said that the dairy sector had done well due to the farmer owned co-operative societies.

“The co-operative movement recorded a 12 per cent growth last year and we project that things will get better when all the co-operative functions are fully devolved,” he said.

On his part, IGRTC Chairman Kithinji Kiragu said that they would support counties in capacity building as part of unbundling of the functions.

“We want to make sure that the transfer of function process does not interfere with service delivery and that it’s within the law and acceptable by both levels of government,” he said.

Kiragu lauded the collaboration between the national and county governments in the transfer of devolved functions.

“The President had given us 60 days to make sure that all pending devolved functions are transferred to counties and we shall meet that by the end of February,” he said.