Don’t meddle in our functions, governors say

By ROSELYNE OBALA and TOBIAS CHANJI

Governors have censured the national government for holding on to some county functions provided for in the Constitution and warned that the move is derailing service delivery in counties.

The county bosses also revealed that they are aware the Executive is plotting to cling on to some of the assigned functions by developing legislation that will retain the devolved functions at the national level.

They claimed there is an attempt to revert the health functions to the national government, which they say is a breach of the law.

Council of Governors chairman Isaac Ruto has now cautioned the government against denying counties their assigned functions as stipulated in law, stating that move will reverse the gains of devolution.

The functions contested include Roads, Health, Agriculture, Water, Energy, Mining, and Environment.

“The government is still hanging on to this functions because it fears devolving the resources attached to them, and only wants to allocate less to the county governments while the lion share of the funds remain at the national level,” Ruto said at the ongoing Devolution Conference in Kwale.

National vs county roads

Transition Authority (TA) Chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi concurred with the county bosses that a lot still needs to be done in terms of unbundling some functions and devolving them to counties.

He singled out roads, rural electrification, forest, State parastatals and assets as some functions still with the national government.

“We still lack a legal framework on the roads function. The Constitution only defines the function as trunk roads for national government and county roads for counties, “Wamwangi said.

“We are scheduled to meet as stakeholders involved on the 11 of this month in Nairobi to discuss the matter and come up with a legislation that clearly classifies the roads function.”

Ruto however rubbished the argument, noting that Class A and B are national roads and Class C, D and E are county roads.

Assets register

“The only reason why the national government is still retaining this function is to deny counties funds and also revert the management of market roads and other areas to the government, and the scheme is through Parliament,” the Bomet governor said.

Wamwangi disclosed that the authority is yet to come up with an assets register for each county to determine what they own.

“The transfer process is far from over. The process is ongoing,” he said.

However Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki came to the defense of the government, stressing that all functions assigned to counties have been devolved.

“It is only TA and the Senate that are mandated by law to handle the transfer of functions and not the national government. TA gazettes assigned functions, while Senate receives appeals from governors on functions not devolved and addresses the matter,” he said.

“There are transferable functions, which have already been released and the concurrent functions, like roads and rural electrification, which require legal framework to be devolved.”

Governors Williams Kabogo (Kiambu) Jack Ranguma (Kisumu), Jackson Mandago (Uasin Gishu), Ali Roba (Mandera) and Ukuru Yatani (Marsabit) faulted the Senate for delaying to give a verdict of their appeals since late last year.

Prof Kindiki, in a quick response, revealed that the Devolution committee chaired by Kipchumba Murkomen released a report in December which is set to be introduced at the floor of the House.

“Speaker Ekwe Ethuro and the House Business Committee have approved the report and it is set to be debated soon,” he said. He further concurred with Wamwangi that the Bill on classification of roads will soon be tabled in Parliament for debate on the definition and classification of county and national roads. “The transition process is ongoing. The constitution provides for three years to allow counties to build capacity,” he argued.

The governors have urged the government to engage counties in addressing teething problems in the health sector, which includes high cost of operation, purchase of health equipment and maintaining specialist doctors.