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There is an urgent need to reduce the number of county governments from the current 47 to 10 through a referendum, former long-serving Eldoret Mayor Josiah Magut proposes.

Magut, who also served as chairman of the defunct Association of Local Government Authorities (Algak), said the number of counties posed a huge burden to taxpayers to sustain the devolved units.

He regretted that the country has continued to witness what he termed as devolved corruption in the counties saying the lion’s share of the county allocation goes to paying wage bills at the expense of grassroots development.

Speaking to the media in Eldoret town ahead of the urban area being elevated to a city status on August 15, the former civic leader also raised the issue of ghost workers which he said was a hectic task to eradicate in the counties.

The former mayor said it is ridiculous and unbelievable that the billions in equitable revenue share the regional governments received from the national government is spent on expenditures.

He argued that unless the counties channel 70 per cent of the sharable revenue they receive from the exchequer, towards development projects at the grass-root levels, the ordinary citizens will never enjoy the fruits of devolution.

“It is disturbing to note that counties spend 70 per cent of the shareable revenue from the central government on wage bills leaving a paltry 30 per cent for development at the grass-root,” said Magut.

Magut said it was not wise for developing nations like Kenya to embrace 47 counties while developed countries with large populations and stable economies have few states which were represented by few governors.

“In America, the size of one state is equivalent to a country like Kenya and is represented by one governor but in our country we have 47 governors which do not make any economic sense in terms of service delivery to the people,” he said.

He impressed upon Kenyans to reconsider the idea of over-devolution by clamouring for reduction of devolved unit for the sake development and sustainability.

Magut said the current state of devolved units has failed to inspire confidence among the citizens who are feeling the pinch of high taxation to meet the huge cost of sustaining regional governments.