Attorney General Dorcas Oduor has been tossed into a raging storm for failing to gazette over 500 functions that were supposed to be transferred to the counties from the national government.

The gazettement of the functions listed in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution would have paved the way for Parliament to pass necessary bills to facilitate the transfer process which was to be done gradually.

It has now emerged that the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) submitted its proposal on the transfer of the functions to the Office of the AG for gazettement but the delay has persisted for almost one year.

According to a devolution working group made up of civil society, IGTRC led the technical process of unbundling the functions from the national government and completed the exercise in November last year before publishing the information in a special gazette notice No 251

Kenya Devolution Civil Society Organisations Working Group (KDCSOWG) said the gazette notice was recalled through another Gazette notice number 257 on December 8, 2023, without any explanation.

“IGRTC jointly with the State Department for Devolution, led a further technical consultation process that involved various task teams and culminated in the drafting of legal notices that clarified all the functions assigned to county governments under the full schedule of constitution to facilitate the Gazettement of the transfer of the pending functions.

“The process reviewed and proposed amendments to 94 existing legislation across various sectors and all these were consolidated into an omnibus bill. This document was submitted to the Office of the Attorney General in July 2024 and has since not been published,” Kenya Human Rights Commission Deputy Executive Director Cornelius Oduor said.