Senators and governors will meet in Naivasha from tomorrow (Friday) to take stock of devolution milestones amid a myriad of challenges facing the devolved entities.
The inaugural two-day high-level summit, is being jointly organised by the Senate and the Council of Governors (CoG) under the theme "Enhancing Collegiality Between the Senate and the Council of Governors: Opportunity for Stock Taking Ten Years into Devolution".
At the heart of the deliberations is the collaboration between the three Arms of Government for effective service delivery at county level.
This comes at a time when governors are crying foul over delayed disbursement of funds to counties and an attempt by central government to claw back devolved functions.
Senate Speaker Amason Kingi and CoG chairperson Ann Waiguru will lead engagements at a time when the two institutions seem to be pulling from different sides, amid calls to defend devolution under the Kenya Kwanza administration.
Mr Kingi argues that devolution has highlighted the existence of unique opportunities for socio-economic growth.
While governors are urging senators to protect counties' interests as enshrined in Article 96 of the Constitution, the latter are also accused of shirking accountability.
"Reports reveal emerging challenges that continue to hamper the operations of the devolved units, thereby affecting the ability of counties to address situations that affect the well-being of the people," Kingi said.
Underscoring the importance of the event, the Speaker said it was aimed at recognising the contributions of the devolved units and their position as key drivers of adequate social protection and transformative development as envisaged in the Constitution.
According to Mr Kingi, the summit will focus on coordination between the Senate and the CoGs to find ways of fostering intergovernmental relations between the national and sub-national levels and by extension the County Executive Assemblies and County Public Service Boards (CPSB) with the aim of ensuring seamless service delivery within the devolved units.
"We seek to build momentum in exploring workable solutions to the funding challenges affecting service delivery in the devolved units in the current shrinking resource envelope.
resource envelope," said the Speaker when he made the announcement in the Senate.
Members of the steering committee include Senators Ali Roba (Mandera), Abbas Sheikh Mohamed (Wajir) and Moses Kajwang' (Homabay) and Governors Fernandes Barrasa (Kakamega), Steven Sang (Nandi) and Mutula Kilonzo Jnr (Makueni).
Kingi says the meeting will inform future in-depth engagements between devolution stakeholders including but not limited to the upcoming Devolution Conference 2023, Legislative Summit 2023 and the Senate Mashinani scheduled for later this year.
Governor Kilonzo Jnr says the planned retreat was long overdue, hence the pull from different quarters.
"The meeting is to bring us together to improve our working relationship, discuss the outstanding issues and the policy gaps in the legislation. The meeting comes very late in our tenure," said the Makueni governor.
"We should have held the meeting as soon as we took office. We have lost a lot. We are also entering the revenue sharing formula phase and we should be moving in the same direction. We should be the drivers of devolution, with the senators leading in terms of advocacy. We need the presence of senators beyond the oversight role," Kilonzo Jnr urged.
This engagement comes against the backdrop of a recent unpopular vote by over 20 pro-President William Ruto senators in favour of Sh385 billion in the Revenue Devolution Bill, 2023 - the sharing of revenue collected nationally between the two levels of government - rejecting a proposal by the Finance and Budget Committee to increase the figure to Sh407 billion.
The push by the Kenya Medical, Pharmacist and Dentists Union (KMPDU) to return the health function to the national government has also rattled governors, informed by ongoing strikes by health workers over delayed salaries and poor working conditions.
Issues to be explored include strengthening intergovernmental relations, devolution policy and legislation, and good governance and financing of devolved units.
The panellist will take an in-depth look at the lessons learnt so far, the challenges faced and the successes achieved.
Some of the functions affected by the legislative gaps include health, agriculture and arid and semi-arid land (ASAL) finance, trade, tourism and natural resources, and labour and social welfare.
Dr Mutakha Kangu, an expert on devolution, will deliver a keynote address on the unbundling and transfer of functions and supporting mechanisms.
The defunct Transition Authority, chaired by Kinuthia Wamwangi, led the process and the Intergovernmental Technical Relations Committee was to take over the remaining functions, including the establishment of an asset and liability register.
Senator Hillary Sigei, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, and Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior, chairperson of the CoG Committee on Legal Affairs, will lead the deliberations on the legislative gaps to strengthen devolution.
