The European Union has launched a programme to monitor spending by County Governments so as to improve the governance systems in the country.
The programme which was dubbed "Strengthening the capacities of state and non-state actors for effective devolved governance in Kenya", was launched on Thursday and will be implemented in three phases at Sh118 Million for the first selected 10 counties.
The ten counties include, Mombasa, Kilifi, Tana River, Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Nakuru, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot.
EU Deputy Head of Cooperation in Kenya, Bruno Pozzi, stated that one of the ways to ensure accountability and transparency was by scrutinizing budgets and counties' development plans.
He advised civil societies to find ways to ensure the functions of counties were not duplicated in order to save on how money was spent.
Mr Pozzi highlighted that public awareness was essential in governance since citizens could monitor keenly what projects their governments were embarking on.
“Without the involvement of citizens in ensuring checks and balances, we will see more overpriced wheelbarrows, more damning reports by the Controller of Budget, not much change in service delivery and in the end, growing animosity against county authorities and the devolution set-up as a whole,” Mr Pozzi said.
County Governments across the country have been accused of massive wastage of public funds and failure to involve the public in key decision making processes, thus the need for the programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development..
Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar who was present at the event, termed the programme a blessing to the devolution process and urged that structures be put in place for its implementation.
