fulfil promises of surrendering devolved functions to the County Governments.Kenya’s public health sector is in turmoil, with primary healthcare services deteriorating to a standstill.
According to the lobby group President William Ruto has twice reneged on his promise to transfer devolved functions to county governments which would have seen at least Sh271 billion send to counties to alleviate the suffering people face.
However, the national government has retained control despite the constitutional mandate to empower county governments with devolved healthcare functions.
Millions of Kenyans are at risk of preventable illnesses and compromised healthcare access while other sectors have also been affected, with infrastructure lying in ruins, because the national government is hoarding funds and functions that the county should be running.The defunct Transition Authority transferred all devolved functions to the county
governments.However, the national government retained roles including Regional Development Authorities, Kenya Forest Services, Water Resources Management Authority, and Kenya Urban Roads Authority on county roads.
President Ruto’s first promise to transfer these functions within 90 days occurred on
August 15, 2023, during the devolution conference held in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.The Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) complied with the directives. IGRTC led the technical processes and published the information in a special gazette notice no. 16170 Vol. CXXV-No. 251 on November 27, 2023.
This process proposed transferring at least an additional Sh271 billion to the county
governments based on the fully costed functions. This gazette notice was, however,
recalled through another gazette notice—Vol. CXXV-No. 257—on December 8, 2023,On December 18, 2023, during the tenth meeting of the national and county governments
coordinating summit, the President, again, announced a new 60-day timeline for
transferring the devolved functions, pushing the deadline to February 2024.
The IGRTC, jointly with the State Department for Devolution, further led a technical
consultation process that involved various task teams and culminated in the drafting of
legal notices that clarified all the functions assigned to the county governments under the
Fourth Schedule of the Constitution to facilitate the gazettement of the transfer of the
pending functions.
This process reviewed and proposed amendments to 94 relevant legislations across
different sectors, consolidated into an Omnibus Bill.
These documents were submitted to the Office of the Attorney General in July 2024 and
have since not been published. Consequently, the presidential directives on the transfer
of the devolved functions have remained a mere promise thus devolved functions transfer may
not be completed.
The Kenya Devolution Civil Society Organisations Working Group has consistently urged
the national government to release these functions as per the Fourth Schedule of our
Constitution saying the national government's continued retention of these roles undermines devolution and compromises socio-economic rights.
