Governors can use the cash crisis to shine and achieve national appeal

Since the advent of devolution in Kenya in 2013, counties have been making one case over the other on the need for enhanced resource allocation from the national government. Globally, the public pulse is on the decline and countries and their subnational entities have to be innovative to continue to operate. There have been some recurrent delays in one way or the other in disbursements to the counties, which is not intentional. This is caused by the fact that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is not getting enough funds through tax and revenue collections for disbursements. Counties complain that they have not aways receiving adequate funds to cover the recurrent and development expenditures. There is need for county governors to think outside the box and out of the convention so that enemies of devolution do not use the cash crush and under-developments in counties to undermine it and eventually make suggestions that are not in favour of devolution. Governors can use three ways to shine locally and get a seat at the national level once they make their counties a success case.

First, there is need for governors to provide visionary leadership at the counties. Leadership has been defined as “a set of behaviors used to help people align their collective direction, to execute strategic plans, and to continually renew an organization”. Governors should be able to work and walk with their constituents in order to align goals, aspirations and sense of direction. This will help in developing executable strategic plans, masterplans and development blueprints for the counties. County governors must be able to continuously improve and renew the counties performance and development. The county leaders require adequate set of skills and capacities to offer good leadership, and some of these skills can be learnt or one can utilize the diverse talents and skills in the public service and the country at large. Secondly, governors should operationalize partnerships and collaborations to deliver beyond the funding from the national government disbursements to counties.

The design of the Kenya Vision 2030 was for the private sector to fund up to 70 percent of all development projects, while the government was to fund only 30 percent through creation of enabling environment, legislation and infrastructure. The Public Private Partnerships Act of 2021 is a framework for operationalizing partnerships in counties. Thirdly, accountability, transparency and innovation in public service will attract non-traditional sources of development financing to the county. Dr. Mutegi Giti, Urban management, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) & Environment Specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com, @danielgiti.