National government ‘killing devolution’
By Samuel Kariuki, July 26, 2025The national government is sending devolution to its deathbed over shortfalls in the allocation of shareable revenue and constant interferences with the operations of counties.
Council of Governors (CoG) argued that the Ksh415 billion to be disbursed to the counties as shareable revenue for the 2025/26 financial year, which constitutes less than 10 per cent of the national budget, is insufficient to run the 14 devolved functions.
The Council faulted the government for relying on outdated audited accounts in determining the amount of shareable revenue that is disbursed to counties for the current financial year.
“The excuse, usually, is that they are working on the final audited accounts while making reference to the 2021/22 financial year. Services are being delivered now, but you’re making reference to audited accounts of four years ago. Really? This is a raw deal to the people of Kenya,” CoG Director of Programmes Wangalwa Kizito said
Government funds
CoG Chief Executive Officer Mary Mwiti blamed Parliament for shortchanging counties in determining the national government funds’ share
Mwiti maintained that following the transfer of more functions to counties in December last year, the devolved units should have been granted not less than Ksh536 billion in the current financial year to cater for their costings.
She blamed Parliament for usurping all the powers given to other institutions, a move that is curtailing their independence.
“Inequity and unequal distribution of resources will continue to be experienced unless institutions stick to their mandates. Our clarion call is moving forward; institutions must stick to their functions. You cannot be the one to give, audit and still implement; there will be some inequality somewhere,” the CoG boss said
“We have one powerful institution that is called Parliament, which has the power of the purse. If parliament has to allocate resources, you have to set aside some resources for their constituencies.”
Mwiti said that the council has suffered budget cuts after filing cases against decisions made by Parliament, which courts rule in favour of the CoG.
“…because we keep going to court over government reports, parliament and the like, our money was completely slashed so that we have no resources to go to court. I want to thank God that for the last 13 years we’ve never lost a case because we speak the truth,” she said.
Mwiti cited the court case on the Road Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) Act, which the High Court said it was unconstitutional for Parliament to exclude counties in sharing the levy and ordered the legislature to allocate the devolved units Ksh10.5 billion from the kitty.
“The RMLF case was concluded in court, but what we saw is actually a blatant violation of the law. Parliament goes again and divides that money among themselves and other agencies. How? So don’t we have rules in this country?” she posed.
Shareable revenue
Noting that corruption is rife on both levels of government, the CoG boss noted that counties are given more attention on misuse of public resources, leading to a reduction of their shareable revenue, while mega graft cases in the national government attract little attention.
“Nobody seems to ask how much of that corruption that we all speak about is in the counties. This financial year, 2024/25, the amount that went to the counties was Ksh10.4 billion of the entire shareable revenue. From our level of Ksh4.2 trillion, we got Ksh387 billion, a paltry 10.4 per cent,” she said.
“Out of it, the wage bill conference that was scientifically driven told us that 7.4 per cent of the money that goes to counties is used for personal emolument, and nobody touches it. What remains for development is a paltry 3.6 per cent. (Expected) to keep health care running, roads to be constructed, pay ECDE teachers and fund other programmes like ICT and agriculture.”
She posed: “Even if one per cent was to be lost through corruption from the money that goes to the counties, what percentage is that to the money that is left at the national level?”
Mwiti touted the health sector as one of the most successful devolved functions, clarifying that most of the level hospitals have functional dialysis machines
“There is no level four county health facility that doesn’t have a functional dialysis unit. The smallest counties have four dialysis machines, and people no longer come to Kenyatta National Hospital for the service,” she said.
She termed the county governments as the duty bearers, especially in the health sector, adding that the national government’s agenda is to do policy standardisation in the five referral hospitals.
“We need to have a candid conversation about the budget allocation for the two levels so that when we say there has to be equity, there can be a resourcing component in it,” Mwiti asserted.
The revelations about crippling operations at counties with insufficient budgets come at a time when governors have also accused the National Treasury of late disbursement of funds, which has caused a sharp rise in pending bills that hit Ksh173 billion as of March 2025.
Nairobi County is the worst hit, with a total of Ksh116 billion accounting for 70 per cent of the total amount of pending bills owed by the 47 devolved units.
“The persistence of high pending bills was mainly attributed to delays in the disbursement of funds by the National Treasury,” Council of Governors (COG) chairman Ahmed Abdullahi said during the State of Devolution address for the 2024/2025 financial year earlier this month.
The CoG spoke when she hosted media editors to appraise them on the forthcoming devolution conference slated for August 12-15 in Homa Bay County.
Implement resolutions
She explained that the event moved from an annual to a bi-annual conference to give governors a two-year window to implement resolutions from the meetings.
“This year’s conference is not an elite talk show, but rather a citizen-centric conversation, so that we can shape the conversation and move it forward,” Mwiti said.
On the first day, which will be officiated by President William Ruto, participants will focus on good governance, while on the second day is about human rights and social justice will take centre stage.
The third day will be dominated by talks on financing, equity and inclusion with Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi being among the national leaders that will address the delegates.
CoG said it had borrowed a leaf from the events of June last year when the youth took to the streets calling for inclusion and good governance.
Notably, the ninth devolution conference becomes the third meeting of national status to be hosted in Homa Bay during Governor Gladys Wanga’s first term of administration.
Wanga hosted the Homa Bay International Investment Conference last year in February, and later this year, was honoured to have Madakara Day celebrations hosted in the lakeside county.