Rutto speaks on referendum push

Governors’ Council chairman Isaac Rutto is pushing for a referendum on the controversy. He spoke to Nation Chief Political Writer Bernard Namunane on his mission

What has been the progress so far in the implementation of devolution?

A: We have moved reasonably well into the implementation of the devolution. The first was the election of governors and their deputies in the last elections. This was followed by appointment of county executive committee members and now majority of them have county public service boards. The transfer of functions, however problematic it has been, is a plus.

Is the progress satisfactory?

A: The transfer of functions falls short of the definition in the Constitution. The Constitution envisages a seamless transfer of functions. The first phase is about the functions which were performed by the former local authorities while the second comprises functions which can be performed at the county level at this moment and finally to unbundle the higher functions which fell under the former Ministry of Regional Development in the third year.

Governors have accused the government of scheming to kill devolution through limited funds and reluctance to devolve some of the functions. Explain.

A: We have not said the government is scheming to kill devolution. What we have been doing was to draw parallels with what happened in 1963 and 1964 over majimbo (federalism). There are a lot of similarities which we can learn from. The same debate which is going on now went on at that time; the strengthening of the Provincial Administration which is happening now is the same as in 1964.

If we draw these similarities you will find that what the likes of Tom Mboya (a minister in the first government) did to federalism is what the likes of (National Assembly Majority Leader Aden) Duale are doing now.

Governors argue the Treasury was opposed to devolution from the beginning when it came to financial management laws. Comment.

A: The Treasury wanted to decentralise itself to the counties. It never wanted the counties to have autonomy over finances. That is why there was a big fight over the PFM (Public Finance Management) Act and it is still on. Now they are saying that they cannot release money in lumpsum; they want to release it monthly so that they can control counties.

Transfer of functions is being executed in one fall instead of phases. Is this meant to prepare for the failure of devolution?

A: County functions have not been transferred in one fall, they have been done in phases. The first was in February when all functions that were under municipalities were transferred. On July 1, it was expected that all the functions that were being handled by the national government which we can handle now are transferred to us.

The third phase involves difficult ones like those of regional authorities and water services where the joint responsibilities with the national government will be spelt. In three years, it is expected that counties can take over functions like the management of TB and other donor-funded programmes.

You have teamed up with senators and Cord, of late, are pushing for a referendum to give the Senate more say on devolution and increase the budgetary allocation from 15 to 45 per cent. Is this the solution?

A: There are serious constitutional and legal challenges that are proving to be obstacles. The Senate is weak and has not passed any laws, except the one on county allocations which was a fait accompli when the National Assembly passed the Division of Revenue Bill.

This means the Senate is a useless entity which should be scrapped, according to the National Assembly. The section that deals with revenue allocation in the Constitution says counties must get not less than 15 per cent of the revenue in the audited accounts of the last budget. The National Assembly, with glee, passed it knowing that the benchmark will be three years ago.

This is why the national government is saying it is giving 32 per cent of the last audited accounts (three years ago), which is a lie to Kenyans. What we want is a percentage of the Sh1 trillion budget of last year and not the Sh600 billion budget of two years ago.

Q: The Transition Authority has complained that having the Ministry of Devolution denies them the autonomy to carry out their mandate. Comment.

A: That is worse. On the board of the Transition Authority, there are eight principal secretaries which means the top officials of the TA have no authority. The TA should have cried foul the moment they realised that half of the board is made up of PSs. It is just a committee of PSs with a few fellows like (TA chairman Kinuthia) Wamwangi.