Governors up in arms over delay in releasing revenue

Governors have accused the national government of delays in releasing their shareable revenue saying some counties have run out of funds for their daily operations and initiate development projects in their regions.

The governors said they are facing hostility from the public as the majority of the projects have stalled even as they struggle to provide crucial services including health owing to the withholding of their money by the National Treasury.

They spoke during the inaugural Counties Peer Review Mechanism (CPRM) undertaken by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

According to NEPAD, CPRM is a governance self-assessment and peer–review tool for Kenyan counties to share experiences, reinforce best practices, identify deficiencies and assess capacity-building needs to foster policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth and sustainable development.

The programme is similar to the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) still implemented by Nepad at the continental level to improve governance among its member states.

“County peer-review mechanism aligns with the mandate of Council of Governors (CoG) as provided for in section 20 of the Intergovernmental Relations Act of 2018 on sharing of information on the performance and qualities,” CoG said in a statement read by Nandi Governor Stephen Sang.

Good governance

Terming the implementation of CPRM as timely and essential, Sang said the programme will not only promote and entrench good governance across the counties, but it will be a critical monitoring tool for tracking the implementation of the county-integrated development plans, Vision 2030, bottom-up economic transformation agenda, sustainable development goals, (SDGs), and the African Agenda 2060.
Twelve counties that include Bungoma, Elgeyo Marakwet, Machakos, Kakamega, Makueni, Mombasa, Nandi, Nyeri, Trans Nzoia, and Vihiga made their presentations before CPRM committee on key areas comprising socio-economic development, economic management and political as well as economic and corporate governance.

“We hope to draw best practises, lessons, and experiences from the presentations today (yesterday) that will be shared with other counties. We anticipate that more counties will be involved in the county peer-review mechanism process in the next few weeks,” the CoG said.

Gen Z demonstrations

Citing the recent demonstrations organized by Gen Z which are expected to resume today, the CoG said there is a need for all the governors to sit back and reflect on their style of governance, service delivery, accountability and inclusivity.

“CPRM approach grants the citizens opportunities to democratically dialogue with their leaders and mutually agree upon commitments to be prioritised for implementation. Besides enhancing public participation in governance and development, the county peer-review mechanism reports will also be useful as oversight instruments for members of the county assemblies and parliament,” Sang said.

Nepad said that by counties participating in the review, they will easily identify areas of perceived good performance and areas requiring a lot more effort and resource allocation.

Additionally, the devolved units will have an opportunity for cross-learning and experience sharing and demonstrate commitment to combating corruption and responsiveness to citizens’ legitimate grievances.

“The process is designed to help counties to identify their areas of strength and areas of weakness according to the citizens’ perceptions. County governments provide evidence of what they have implemented while citizens express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction and give suggestions on how performance could be improved. This informs government on what to do in response and how to re-shape focus,” the agency said.

It adds: “Owing to various factors, counties are at different levels of development. Opportunities for cross-learning help them to pick up crucial lessons and governance practices which they can customize and replicate in their jurisdictions. It obviates the need for expensive international benchmarking missions.”

Nepad emphasized that corruption and a rigorous interrogation of the anti-corruption measures in the counties is a key element of the County Peer-Reviews where regular monitoring of systems, practices and structures of county government will provide the requisite pressure on graft.

The agency said there is a perception that the government lacks a commitment to facilitate meaningful public participation and that when the exercise is facilitated by a semi-autonomous government agency in conjunction with an Independent Panel of Eminent Persons, it attains