Kingi seeks more funds for devolved functions
County governments could be forced to dig deeper into their coffers if all the functions still held by the National government are fully transferred.
Already, the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) has identified and compiled all the functions that are supposed to be transferred to the devolved units and are only waiting to cost the items.
This means the current allocation to the County governments will go up if resources are to follow the functions.
Yesterday, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi said in the next six months, the unbundled functions will have been transferred to the counties.
However, he charged that even though the IGRTC has unbundled the functions, there is a need to cost the functions so that Counties are not under financial pressure to execute functions without resources.
“As the functions go, then corresponding funds should follow them. Otherwise, we will burden the counties with functions that they do not have funds for,” said Kingi.
Kingi, who was speaking when he hosted Danish Ambassador to Kenya Ole Thonke at Parliament Buildings, argued that the biggest gap in the devolved units effectively executing their mandate of legislation and oversight is lack of capacity building.
The former Kilifi governor pointed out that Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge concerning their roles to effectively discharge their mandate.
Nonetheless, financing has been a constraint on the part of the county governments which are grappling with lack of cash.
“The biggest gap is capacity building. Other than politics, the MCAs do not internalize their roles. They need to understand their roles of legislation and oversight. They trade in a lot, a trade that is not based on issues,” said Kingi.
