With good county governance, finances will not be an issue

By Billow Kerrow

It is often said both optimists and pessimists die the same, but just live differently. There is unnecessary concern over the success of the proposed counties as we seek to implement the concept of devolution.

It is imperative that we have to address key areas of the county structure, especially in relation to the provincial administration and local authorities, revenue allocation, staffing, and controls over spending among other issues.

However, these issues cannot, and will not, be addressed to our national satisfaction conclusively before the county regime comes into effect; it has to be done progressively, and may take a decade before we get it right.

The key objective in the creation of the counties is to enhance participation of the people of Kenya in the exercise of powers of the State so that they can make decisions affecting their lives, thereby enhancing checks and balances through the decentralisation of powers, and to establish equitable sharing of resources in the country.

These two noble objectives fulfil the aspirations of the Kenya people who for decades have been excluded in management of their own affairs, and consigned to a life of poverty because of skewed and unaccountable resource allocation. The debate over revenue sources and the viability of the counties has often been used by status quo apologists to question whether the country can afford this system.

The blokes at the Treasury do not help matters by pontificating perennially that there are no funds to implement the system; by implication, Kenyans are warned time and again they will pay more taxes to finance the new political dispensation.

This week, the proposed expenditure of the two chambers of Parliament made headlines for the wrong reasons — high costs! We have forgotten the benefits of enhanced democracy and accountability necessary for the effective operation of the new dispensation.

Our country has adequate national resources to fully finance our future development, and good living. It is not the lack of revenue that worries ordinary Kenyans but the lack of commitment to good governance i.e. the absence of prudent public spending and lack of focus on national priorities for development. The consequence of these is the massive corruption, wastage, and extravagance that characterise our public service.

The Constitution envisages rationalisation of Government, not a multiplication of the same. The counties are not a parallel regime to the national Government but components of the same that compliment its effectiveness.

We are not creating a new public service in the counties but redeploying the national public service by devolving their functions and roles, as well as the relevant budget resources, to the counties.

The process of redeployment and reassignments requires a national audit of staff, redefining job descriptions and preparing public servants for a mass exodus from national and provincial headquarters to the counties.

A critical review of the functions of the counties will reveal that key-spending departments will still be under the national Government and the counties will not be over-burdened by activities for which they will not be funded. For instance, Provincial Administration, Treasury, Defence, Education, national roads and communication infrastructure that take more than half the public spending remain largely outside the counties mandate.

Key taxes will be collected by the national Government; a county’s fiscal capacity and efficiency only counts in how much revenue it may be allocated, not what it raises because it has no power to impose ordinary taxes. Expectation of huge revenue generation by counties centred on exploitation of local resources and enhanced tax base is misplaced, as this will be channelled to the KRA and not retained by the counties.

We must reduce the pervasive corruption, focus on economic growth and limit the unchecked borrowing by the Treasury to remain on course. We can’t change direction of the wind but we can change the direction of our sails.