Senators, governors differ on disbanding transition body

By ROSELYNE OBALA

NAIROBI, KENYA: The planned dissolution of the Transition Authority (TA) has put governors on a collision course with senators, who feel the decision will undermine devolution.

Senators warned governors against supporting the disbandment of TA, explaining that the move would impact negatively on the smooth transition to devolved governments.

Senators Abdirahman Ali Hassan (Wajir), James Orengo (Siaya), David Musila (Makueni) and Okong’o Mong’are (Nyamira) expressed reservations on the matter, emphasising that counties are just starting to pick up and sending TA home would jeopardise the process.

“The stipulated three-year period for TA to ensure a smooth transition process to county governments clearly gives the authority time to define its roadmap,” said Hassan.

He argued that it was too early to discredit the authority’s performance.  “The governors are digging their graves as far as full implementation of devolution is concerned. To ensure full implementation, there must be laid down structures and capacity for counties to stand on their own,” he explained.

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Hassan, who is also the Senate acting minority leader, warned that already governors had taken the wrong route, going by Council of Governors Chairman Isaac Ruto’s affirmation that he is backing the scrapping of TA. “Who will oversee the process? The governors need to work closely with TA and the national government to operationalise devolution,” he urged, adding, “County governments cannot operate on their own at the moment.”

Musila said there was a disturbing trend in Government – when the leadership feels dissatisfied with the performance of an institution, it is disbanded.