Governors’ demands for next President
Council of Governors Chairman Martin Wambora addresses journalists at Delta House in Nairobi in January.
The Council of Governors wants a committee akin to the defunct Transition Authority formed to manage the transfer of functions and funds to counties and the appointment of a Secretary of Devolution at the National Treasury in the new administration.
The governors have come up with what they call a Devolution Charter that contains a raft of demands that have to be signed by presidential aspirants in the hope that they will be implemented once they are elected.
Top on the list is that the next President should introduce the Office of the Secretary for Devolution at the National Treasury to coordinate disbursement of funds to counties.
The disbursement of funds has been counties’ biggest nightmare, with the Treasury often ignoring the schedule as approved by the Senate, leading to delays that sometimes run into months.
In 2020, governors shut down counties for days over the delays.
Speaking in Meru on Friday after a two-day forum that brought together the National Assembly, the County Assemblies Forum and county attorneys, Governor Kiraitu Murungi said the county bosses will use the charter to gauge the commitment of the next President on devolution.
Mr Murungi chairs the CoG’s legal, constitutional affairs and intergovernmental relations committee.
Also present were CoG chairman Martin Wambora, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, his Senate counterpart Ken Lusaka and Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, who is also chairman of the Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee at the Senate.
The governors lamented that, 10 years into devolution, several functions were yet to be transferred to the counties, hindering operations. The county chiefs said the Transition Authority was wound up early.
Governors want the next President to transfer all functions performed by ministries through parastatals to the counties within the first 100 days. They cited functions under the Agriculture and Food Authority, which they said should be devolved.
“For instance, the Kenya Rural Roads Authority is building roads in rural areas yet this is under county governments. We demand that funds and engineers at Kerra should be transferred to the counties,” Mr Murungi said.
The governors said that, while workers at the national level are paid on time, salaries for those in counties are delayed on “flimsy excuses”. They termed this as discrimination and want the Secretary for Devolution to resolve some of these issues.
Mr Murungi said devolution was “the greatest innovation in our constitutional dispensation”, adding that it should be strengthened “because it is the game changer” in the economic transformation of the country.
Mr Kajwang’ asked governors not to view the Senate as a rival institution but one that provides oversight, which is critical for the success of devolution.
