by Colin Furness
On a sunny Friday afternoon Evans Odhiambo sat in his dinged up silver Toyota RAV4 on Waiyaki Way. Creeping forward inch by inch, Evans blended in with the other old silver Toyota models. Vendors sold mdizi (bananas) for 10 ksh (15 cents) each. A full matatu (mini bus) aggressively cut off Evans and he glared at the conductor, but then shrugged and continued chewing his khat inconspicuously. A man was selling trinkets and toys, but Evans only noticed the large portrait he was offering. It was the recently elected, President Uhuru Kenyatta. He looked at the smiling image of the newly minted President, and Evans said to himself, “The new Kenya will finally be the one that gets it right.”
Devolution swept across Kenya in the lead up to the March 2013 elections. The highly centralized government in the capitol Nairobi was finally forced to relinquish some of its authority. The new 2010 constitution created a new layer of government, the county. The previous 8 provinces were transformed into 47 counties and city governments ceased to exist. The long-standing and powerful Nairobi City Mayor and Nairobi City Council were replaced by the Nairobi County Governor and Nairobi County Council. The 695 sq. Km. Nairobi County has the largest population at around 3.5 million, and while the much larger, 6,500 square kilometers, Lamu County only has a population of only 100,000. The new Nairobi County has the same historical boundaries as Nairobi City. However, Lamu County incorporates Lamu Town, 6 distinct villages and an extensive rural area.
Certain public services—public health, water, and sanitation—were devolved to the county governments and the federal government maintained large-scale sectorial goods, such as national security and education. The new county system was meant to bring local government services closer to the population. Inclusive, accountable, local governments were to maximize benefits, while counties were to collect local revenues, and locally elected officials were to determine the counties’ public expenditures. If the local population did not agree with the decisions of the local public officials they could easily vote them out of office. The new devolved system looked good on paper, but could a new layer of government be created overnight? Could the newly elected government officials manage local services in a sufficient manner, and meet the expectations of Evans and his fellow Kenyans?
Currently in Kenya, the Members of Parliament are the highest paid on the African continent, and both county governors and local county councils members contend they do not receive enough compensation and threaten to strike. County governors have demanded diplomatic passports, and they have held discussions about solidifying their respective county boundaries and borders. Empowering a novice group of elected officials has gotten off to a rocky start, but there are green shoots of decentralization emerging. County governors challenged the President on their allotted funds amount, fired unproductive local county workers, and have raised local revenue for local projects.
Devolution in Kenya is far from perfect, but with the right strategy, county governments can continue to grow and provide essential services to their respective populations. As the sun sets on Evans’ drive home to Meru County, he can not help but smile at the construction workers improving his local road with his local tax dollars.