Cake or crumbs? Counties starved of funds despite devolution promise

President William Ruto arrives for the Devolution Conference in Homa Bay County, on August 12, 2025. [Michael Mute, Standard] 

It is fair to observe that Homa Bay county (County Number 43) has recently gained prominence in the public domain as the “go to” place for major national, regional and local-level events and happenings. We’ve seen the county hosting one national public holiday celebration that was cleverly dovetailed into an earlier, reportedly successful international investment conference.

Through media, we observe a Homa Bay investment and infrastructure mini-boom of sorts; from business set-ups to new roads and recreational facilities.  Right on cue, the 9th Devolution Conference (DevCon 2025) took place last week, a mere fortnight short of our 2010 Constitution’s 15th anniversary; right in the middle of devolution’s 2023-2027 “third wave”. To be clear, devolution’s first two waves were 2013-2017 and 2018-2022.  We will return to this point.