Leverage on the media highlights on devolution stories to make it work

The media has highlighted the stories of devolution and it comes at a time when two term governors are finalizing their legacies by completing one or two projects. What happens to such ongoing projects after such governors leave office? Will their successors spearhead them or they will fall to the hand of political expediency hence lose value for money?  Some local government backed projects were abandoned by governors who were elected into office starting in 2013 and as such a trend has been set. Many counties inherited a lot of land from local authorities and other assets and because of lack of adequate mechanisms for transfer of assets, land, projects and programmes, some well-intentioned projects could have been lost in the melee. It is not good practice that what one regime starts is not completed because of one reason or the other, including on change of guard or the governance system. We must be able to manage our projects on perpetuity. Counties in Kenya have faced many challenges that can be addressed by five major ways going forward and what those aspiring to be governors should seek to harness and address. One is the issue of resources that includes the potential resources –whether fiscal, natural and human resources that exist in a given county. There is need for adequate resource mobilization for implementation of such projects beyond the national government allocations where counties undertake adequate and innovative resource mobilization programmes.

These can be expanded to include things like leveraging on donations from high net worth individuals for certain projects, which might be actualized by pitching such ideas to those who can buy such ideas. The counties can pursue the grants way through cooperation with the national governments and other stakeholders, and they can also use loans and floating bonds as exemplified by Laikipia county that floated an infrastructure bond. Secondly, counties need to come up with adequate legislations that are enacted on time to address timely issues. Thirdly, counties should invest in good systems that are able to operate even without one leader or the other hence ensure projects can be completed no matter change of leadership. Fourthly, counties should ensure their units are empowered and adequately capacitated to identify, prioritize and undertake the functions and projects they have been assigned.