Principal Secretary, State Department for Energy Alex Wachira has called on technical officers drawn from the National and county governments engaged in the ongoing transfer of pending devolved functions to apply the spirit of the Constitution that aims at supporting devolution through consultative cooperative and coordinated relations.

The PS welcomed the move by the intergovernmental technical relations to revoke the Gazette notice No 251 that was published on  November 27, 2023 to allow further deliberations on the contents of transfer exercise, which he said  calls for more consultation.

Wachira who spoke in Naivasha during the ongoing stakeholders meeting, said unbundling and transfer of functions is a process and not a one-time event that should consider the views of Kenyans to analyse and deliberate.

He said these are essential issues that will not only deepen devolution but enhance better service delivery without overlapping roles.

“ We have a very difficult task ahead of us that requires serious consultations from every party. Devolution is here to stay and that is  why we do not want to rush. We want to have an exercise that will make it work and work effectively,” he said.

According to the revoked Gazette notice, county governments were supposed to plan and construct electric supply lines together with service lines to enable consumers get supply of electricity in accordance with the Integrated National Energy Plan.

While the National government is supposed to develop electricity reticulation policy, build capacity of counties  in electricity reticulation, monitor and evaluate implementation of the policy and develop gas reticulation policy, national standards to guide the implementation of gas reticulation also build the capacity of county governments in gas reticulation.

Intergovernmental Technical Relations Committee IGRTC vice-chair  Saadia Kontoma called on the cooperation between the two levels of government as envisaged in the Constitution.