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Book summary

Motivation to write the book The author was motivated by the following reasons to write this book; • To create awareness on the status of devolution in Kenya with a comparison with other countries in the world. • Highlighting the weaknesses of devolution and recommending possible solutions. • Raising points of concern on the dangerous route devolution is currently taking and strongly warning of the serious negative consequences. • To contribute in finding solutions to the extreme challenges bedeviling devolution. • To reduce the knowledge gap on devolution matters by contributing information for the current and future generations. • To provide vital information to students, researchers and policy makers to digest and come up with more interventions to save devolution from destruction. Devolution is when a centralized governing power chooses to relinquish some power and authority to the smaller governing regions within their power. Ever since the Garden of Eden, humankind has been constantly devolving, hence this practice is old as the creation. Devolution means that decision making is moved closer to the citizen and is democratic. Due to resistance to change, lack of good will and critical resources devolution has become like a fluff, a blunder and an invented fumble. Local governments have been put in an awkward position by the chaotic lapse, misstep, stumble, mis-judgement and purposed backsliding by some players. Devolution has been made to look like a silly mistake walked on a slippery ground, a grueling exercise and a useless laborious effort. Devolution has gone through a severe testing for all players who must now repent and pay keen attention for success. The primary goal of devolution is to allow greater autonomy to local government units for more effective and efficient delivery of public services. It targets to transfer more power to local authorities and assist communities to to respond to their unique challenges and opportunities for greater prosperity. Proper funding of devolution and full transfer of critical functions by the central government is necessary in order for devolution to work and become meaningful to the citizens. Devolution must protect and promote the interests and rights of minorities, marginalized communities and bring national harmony and integration. It must provide accountability channels which ensure that individuals are held responsible for their decisions and actions. It must also promote social and economic development and provide easily accessible services throughout the country. Setting the leadership and integrity standards required of all public servants to comply is very necessary. However, devolution in Kenya faces numerous challenges including very high cost, duplication of roles, mismanagement of funds, incomplete transition processes, very huge human resources and technical gaps, extreme fiscal challenges, exclusion and numerous terrible conflicts. Other challenges which seriously frustrate and may kill devolution include low revenue collection, inequality, youth unemployment, transparency and accountability issues and the vulnerability of the economy to internal and external shocks. Divisive politics, huge pending bills, entrenched impunity, negative ethnicity and a political culture are other risks. These make devolution lose its real original meaning and has become a laughing stock. Corruption issues in county offices brought a big mess and the vice is very rampant in Kenya. It is the biggest monster and the elephant in the room which has become the norm, lifestyle and part of life. It is in the blood stream of many county governments as and serious venture with the private sector. In fact, corruption as an outright theft is the ‘emerging profession’ in Kenya and the world over. Sadly, more amplified corruption was devolved from national government from the year 2013 after transfer of power through devolution. Indeed, corruption seriously follows resources. The reports of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, and Controller and Auditor General (OAG) on the 47 County Governments outlines several areas of risk including unprofessionalism, mismanagement, incompetence, lapses and malpractices which border on illegalities and corruption. These are raising the red flag on the need to take urgent action to bring sanity and save the tax payers money from further loss. The areas questioning integrity sampled from the 47 counties are of transactions of approximately over Ksh.16 billion in just one financial year compared to Ksh. 286.8 billion received from the equitable share of revenue. This can be concluded shockingly that over 6% of county revenue either goes to waste or is stolen in the counties. The darkest side of devolution provides some of the extremes practiced within the devolution system, which if not tackled, can kill devolution on one strike. These include stalled of projects, irregular procurement, misappropriation of funds, unresolved prior years audit issues which border on impunity, non-compliance on the wage bill, non-remittance of payroll deductions, unutilized projects, non-compliance to the law on ethnic composition which adversely affects the national unity and integration. To be precise devolution has indeed strengthened negative tribalism. Unremitted statutory deductions, abuse of office, irregular employment, top management doing business with counties, overpricing of goods and services and approving incomplete or ghost projects for payments are other hitches among others. Despite the tug of war between the counties and the national government devolution is still a milestone and a great spring board to faster development and cannot be reversed whatsoever. It can only be improved so that we can enjoy the fruits of development like many other nations of the world. We must all resolve to acquire new energy, passion and resilience so as to regain the lost ground and bring together the entire army of stakeholders to work and to achieve the much sought prosperity in Kenya and world over. This book deals with history of devolution in Kenya, disadvantages of centralization, allocation of funds by National Treasury, rampant strikes, objectives of county government, forces of devolution, pillars of decentralization, structure of Kenya government, devolution services in Kenya, features of devolution in Kenya and other parts of the world, principles of devolved government, cooperation between national and county government, support for county government, conflict of laws, suspension of a county government , values and principles of public service, leadership and integrity and benefits of devolution. This book also covers the ideal situation in a devolved system, challenges facing devolution, corruption issues in counties, the darkest side of devolution, important recommendations and conclusions which can make devolution a great springboard for transformation to Kenya and nations around the world.