The ninth devolution conference has been held in Homa Bay amidst great hopes and aspirations of the promise of devolution. Within economic research, devolution is described as a type of fiscal federalism (or fiscal decentralization) and focuses on how powers over public revenue and expenditure are assigned to lower levels of government – and considers the implications for regional economic performance. The devolved system of governance instituted with the creation of 47 counties through the promulgation of the Kenya Constitution 2010, which itself was a Kenya Vision 2030 idea under the social pillar, carried great expectations of Kenyans. Counties would formally take shape after the 2013 general election. Devolution offers great promise towards addressing these issues, and the first five years of devolution have provided for the rapid and effective establishment of the counties, but much work remains to install the capacity at national and county levels to address social, accountability, and environmental issues. Devolution has gained ground and achieved a lot regardless of some of the shortcomings observed. As an institutional response to longstanding grievances, this radical restructuring of the Kenyan state had three continuing main objectives: decentralizing political power, public sector functions, and public finances; ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources among regions; and promoting more accountable, participatory, and responsive government at all levels.
A study by the World Bank (2022) in a study entitled “Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery in Kenya”, a World Bank study took stock of how devolution has affected the delivery of basic services to Kenyan citizens nine years after the “devolution train” left the station. They noted that whereas devolution was driven by political reform, the ensuing institutions and systems were expected to deliver greater socio-economic equity through devolved service delivery. The study was jointly coordinated by the government of Kenya and the World Bank, and it was the first major assessment of Kenya’s devolution reform since its inception in 2013. The study provided key messages about what is working, what is not working, and what could work better to enhance service delivery based on currently available data. It provided an independent assessment of service delivery performance in five sectors which have the highest capacity of greatly transforming the lives of the citizenry and thereby contributing to rapid economic development for the country. These are: agriculture, education, health, urban services, and water services. This assessment included an in-depth review of the main pillars of devolved service delivery which includes accountability, human resource management, intergovernmental finance, politics, and public financial management. In addition to its findings for the present, the study provided recommendations on how Kenya can improve its performance in each of these pivotal areas in the future. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 