Lets give it 2 years. This County Govt thing will bite back really hard. The personal fiefdoms, ethnic balkanization and corruption is slowly building up.

Very true. Until the Governors start thinking of how to organically grow rather than wait for hand-outs from the Central Government, devolution will remain a dream.

A county like Kajiado can generate its budget from land rates, building approvals, markets, providing infrastructure at a charge ( water, sewer etc )but the poor governor is making rounds in the US to learn how governance can work instead of engaging the residents on how to move forward!

I guess thats the wrong start, why are we calling the money that counties are entitled to handouts, the funds they receive are a constitutional entitlement. the national gava needs to respect that.

But I am enjoying this, Ruto is acting for all governors, both Jubilee and Cord, in any case, who would not mind more funds.

The referendum for 40% of the budget is a little premature, they should first attempt to exhaust the funds they have been allocated, I can bet at the end of the accounting year, many counties will return unused funds to treasury. And yes, there are many ways to generate more funds from within their counties, they should focus on this.

It would also be nice if the elected leaders stopped arguing, fighting and bickering atleast for the next 4 years and focus more on delivery of services.

The amount is too little. Take the example of Kiambu County with a budget of about 6.5B and about 5.0B is salaries. All we are doing is decentralizing payroll function and calling that devolution. Of course what the counties are entitled to should be given to them but governors cannot make it a full time job to be following up what they are rightly entitled to.Even a KATC accountant can do that job without much ado.

Take the scenario of an Multinational Executive ( Governor) sent by the Head Office ( Central Govt/County Residents) to set up an operation in a new territory ( County). The setup costs of establishing the new operation is availed by the head office (County Budget) and it cannot be a full time occupation for the multinational executive to be following up on it. More effort should be towards growing the new business and hence create value for the owners.