- The National and County governments have moved to resolve a stalemate over Sh272.2 billion devolved functions earmarked for devolution.
- The State Department of Devolution and the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) have come arbitrate the parties to avert a fallout and court battles over the roles.
Image: /EZEKIEL AMING'A
The National and County governments have moved to resolve a stalemate over Sh272.2 billion devolved functions.
The State Department of Devolution and the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) have come to arbitrate the parties to avert a fallout and court battles over the roles.
Devolution PS Teresia Mbaika and IGRTC chairman Kithinji Kiragu has summoned a meeting of all the governors, Principal Secretaries and their technical staff to resolve the standoff.
“In the next two to three weeks, we will have a meeting in Naivasha. This is for purposes of all of us being together,” Mbaika said on Wednesday.
The PS spoke alongside Kiragu after a meeting with PSs to agree on the modalities for the Naivasha meeting, at Norfolk hotel in Nairobi.
“We started with PSs, it will be escalated to CSs and also summit and then all of us agree and gazette the functions,” she said.
The development comes after IGRTC unbundled several devolved functions that are still being performed by the National government, and their budgets—Sh272.2 billion.
The committee also identified several pieces of legislators and proposed their amendment to fully anchor devolution.
In November last year, IGRTC gazetted elements of some 65 functions for release to the counties after more than 10 months of stakeholder engagement.
They include forestry, mining, video shows and hiring, cinemas, racing, betting, casinos and other forms of gambling, water and sanitation services, street lighting, county abattoirs and fisheries extension services.
Others are plant disease control, animal husbandry, refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal, veterinary services (excluding regulation of the profession) and ambulance services.
However, the notice was immediately recalled amid protest reports from the ministries, department and agencies that were set to surrender the functions.
“The gazette notice was recalled for the purposes of ensuring we bring everybody on board,” Mbaika said.
Consequently, last month, President William Ruto gave the IGRTC two months to engage all stakeholders to avert a looming clash and court battles over the functions.
“Accordingly, I have instructed IGRTC to thoroughly engage all relevant stakeholders to avoid conflicts and acrimonious litigation in court,” Ruto said.
The head of state spoke during the National and County Governments Summit held at State House in December last year.
On Wednesday, Kiragu alluded to the disagreements by some players by its resolutions on the transfer of the functions.
“Some issues arose and because issues arose in one or two places, and to ensure no issues are raised after this one, we agreed that we give stakeholders another chance to engage,” he said.
Mbaika said the Naivasha meeting will provide a platform for further consultation and validation of the transfer of function reports produced by IGRTC.
“The validation process will result to gazettement of the functions for transfer, followed by transfer of attendant resources,” the PS said.
She added that the validated reports for transfer will be gazetted immediately after the consultation in mid-February.
“IGRTC and the State Department of Devolution implores the two levels of government to leverage on the constitutional and statutory provisions that pave the wat for continuous consultations,” she said.