Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa wants the government to fully devolve functions which were identified for transfer to counties.
Barasa said delays in the process to transfer functions have led to the loss of millions of funds which would have been directed to run the activities in counties.
“We have functions worth around Sh275 billion which have been costed by Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee(IGRTC) that was tasked with a responsibility of making sure the functions that are not yet devolved as per the fourth schedule are properly scheduled and transferred to counties,” Barasa said.
Barasa was speaking in Kisumu during the 6th Public Finance Management Conference by the Association for Women Accountants in Kenya (AWAK).
The devolved functions performed by county governments include agriculture, health, Early Childhood Development, vocational training, water supply, waste management, community development and many others.
“The costing has been done but one of the fiscal responsibilities of principal governance according to Public Finance Management is to make sure functions are transferred with attendant resources. So once the transfers are done then funds should follow functions,” he said.
Speaking when launching the process in March, IGRTC chairman Kithinji Kiragu gave a target of two months for the specific functions to be transferred in the 2023-2024 financial year.
During the devolution conference held in Uasin Gishu county in August, President William Ruto noted that the pending functions would be transferred in two months.
Ruto said he had delegated the task to a transition committee which would collaborate with all the stakeholders to ensure the functions are transferred within the stipulated time.
“First, we undertook to transfer all outstanding functions constitutionally earmarked to be performed by counties," Ruto said.
"An analysis is being done on the funding that will accompany the transfer of those functions. I am told in the next 60 days we will be able to transfer all the remaining functions to our counties."
In its interim report, IGRTC said functions performed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies are worth Sh272 billion.
Agriculture, for example, holds onto 41 functions valued at Sh105 billion while Transport has 51 accounting for Sh51 billion, education has 52 elements and tourism and wildlife have functions valued at Sh31 billion.
