Fate of public property in limbo as authority’s term comes to an end

The whereabouts of public property running into billions of shillings remain unknown as the term of the Transition Authority (TA) ends next month.

According to Section 37 of the Transition to Devolved Government Act, the authority should be dissolved on March 4. The law provides that the authority should wind up three years after the first General Election under the Constitution or upon full transition to county governments – whichever comes first.

The first General Election under the Constitution was conducted on March 4, 2013. Three years will have elapsed on March 4.

Transitional Authority chairperson Kinuthia Wamwangi (PHOTO: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/ STANDARD)

The functions of the authority included preparing and validating an inventory of all existing assets and liabilities of the Government, public entities and the now defunct local authorities.

It was also empowered to make recommendations for effective management of assets of both national and county governments and also provide mechanisms for asset transfer during the transitional period.

Transfer

Upon dissolution, net assets and liabilities are transferred to the National and County Government Coordinating Summit under the intergovernmental relations and any money held by the authority must be paid to the Consolidated Fund.

The Senate has been debating whether or not the term of the authority should be extended to enable it complete its statutory functions, but the whereabouts of public property it was supposed to transfer from the defunct municipalities to counties remain a mystery.

In 2013, TA chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi disclosed that there had been no official list detailing Government assets and liabilities since 1963.

Consequently, the authority sought Sh5 billion to enable it compile an inventory of public assets and liabilities set for allocation to the central and county governments.

Regulations

Wamwangi, who spoke at a forum to validate regulations for transfer of assets and liabilities, said the process would pave way for publication of the regulations in the Kenya Gazette.

He said the authority would revoke transfers of public assets by ministries, state corporations and local authorities despite a Government moratorium on such transactions, until after the last General Election.

Since then, the authority has been shouting itself hoarse about how some individuals had acquired public land and backdated the certificates of ownership.

The authority said some Government officials were entering into long-term contracts on functions that were supposed to be transferred to county governments. A committee comprising permanent secretaries, TA, and non-State actors was to be set up to review the dubious transactions.

Transactions that were found to be irregular were to be cancelled and guilty officials were to be prosecuted. The prosecutions are yet to be reported. Section 35 of the Transition to Devolved Government Act empowers the authority to recover illegally-transferred public assets.

The authority recently requested Senate to consider extending its transition period by at least three years to enable it complete “pending” activities.

In its recent special status report to the Senate, the authority recounted how it encountered numerous challenges that have forced it to leave some essential activities pending. One of the challenges has been inadequate funding (they were allocated a paltry five per cent of what they had requested).

In a recent report titled, Report on the Status of Devolution: Achievements, Challenges and Lessons Learnt, TA said that its main challenges have been insufficient budgetary allocation, uncoordinated and incongruent initiatives by various stakeholders.

Another challenge has been realignment of laws touching on devolved functions, which have made it difficult to transfer some of the assets and liabilities to county governments.