President William Ruto on Wednesday announced that the government will transfer all the remaining devolved functions being handled by the national government to county governments within 60 days.
Speaking during the Devolution Conference in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Ruto announced that the national government, a transition committee and all the stakeholders had agreed on the functions to be transferred.
"An analysis is being done on the funding that will accompany the transfer of those functions," the President announced.
"I am told in the next 60 days we will be able to transfer all the remaining functions to our counties."
The President revealed that the extra functions being devolved would not become a financial burden to the counties as his administration would continue the timely disbursement of funds.
He explained that he was a strong believer in devolution and had made a commitment to the Council of Governors (CoG) chair that he would do everything possible to keep to the timelines of disbursing money due to counties.
According to the Kenyan Constitution, there are 14 devolved functions. These include; Agriculture, County Health Services, Control of Pollution, Cultural and Entertainment activities and County Transport.
Others include; Animal control and welfare, Trade development, County planning, Pre-primary education, County public works and services, and Firefighting services and disaster management.
County governments are also mandated to oversee the implementation of specific national government policies on natural resources as well as the control of drugs and pornography and ensure and coordinate the participation of communities and locations in governance.
In October 2022, The Council of Governors requested the national government to fully devolve health functions. At the time the CoG accused the national government of withholding finances meant for health services at the county level.
Again, in December 2022, County Governors led by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga asked Ruto to fastrack the release of all pending devolved functions to counties.
In further good news to county governments, Ruto promised that the national government would release billions being held by the Treasury to counties with mining areas.
The President was affirming a commitment that his government made in November 2022, that his administration would enact the Mining Act 2016 that states revenue from minerals to be shared between the national government, the county government and communities living in the mining areas at a ration of 70:20:10 respectively.
