The meeting is expected to address contentious issues hampering the smooth transfer of functions to the devolved system of government/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya Jul 29 – A meeting between Deputy President William Ruto and 21 Jubilee Alliance governors has resolved to convene another session of all the institutions concerned with devolution.
The meeting is expected to address contentious issues hampering the smooth transfer of functions to the devolved system of government.
Speaking after the a six hour long meeting at his Deputy President’s official residence in Karen , Ruto said the meeting will bring together the Constitution Implementation Commission(CIC), the Transitional Authority, Commission on Revenue Allocation,(CRA) Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee(CIOC), Senate Legal Affairs Committee and Commission on Administrative Justice.
“To avoid any grey areas, we have agreed that we are going to assemble everybody so that we all sign-in that this is the direction we are going to go, this is the roadmap, these are the steps that will eventually lead to us to transferring all this functions,” asserted the Deputy President.
“We want to bring everyone on board to ensure that devolution works and county government perform their function as spelled out in the Constitution works well for this country.”
The Transitional Authority had told the 47 counties to lay groundwork to take up 24 functions including agriculture, health, transport, trade, planning and development by the beginning of this month
The Deputy President pointed out that the national government will not stand in the way of transfer of all the functions and responsibilities to the county governments as spelled out in the Constitution.
Council of Governors Chairman Isaac Ruto said the governors were ready and willing to engage with all the stakeholders in resolving any outstanding issues in the devolved system of government.
The Bomet Governor said they will not drop their push to drum up support for a referendum to increase resources to the counties, if their concerns are addressed at the caucus of all the stakeholders later in the week.
“The referendum will be on the basis of the questions proposed. We have said we are engaging with all the stakeholders including government (that has been in our discussion with the Senate) and if we resolve the matter the better,” he added.
“Indeed we would like to carry everybody on board to understand those issues plus other laws but we have not come up with a comprehensive list.”
The meeting follows a move by both Governors and Senators to hold nationwide rallies to push for a referendum to amend the Constitution to raise to 40 percent financial allocations to counties.
These currently stand at 15 percent of National Revenue.
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