Uhuru team quits county conference

The national government Wednesday appeared to have pulled out its officials from the governors’ conference that starts Thursday.

The strained relations between the leadership of the national and county governments played out on Wednesday at the meeting’s venue, Leisure Lodge Resort in Kwale, when it became clear that top officials, among them, Deputy President William Ruto, who was scheduled to close the three-day meeting on Friday afternoon, would not attend.

Others previously listed to address the Coast parley, whose objective is to take stock of the governors’ one year in office, are seven Cabinet ministers and a number of senior civil servants.

Indications were that senators listed to address the conference would not turn up.

However, Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki spent the better part of the day Wednesday with the governors and called for more consultation and cooperation between the two levels of government to ensure devolution takes root.

The chairman of the Council of Governors, Mr Isaac Ruto, said that the national government had been involved in its planning. This is why President Kenyatta and his deputy had been scheduled to attend to open and close respectively.

However, Mr Ruto, who is also the governor of Bomet, said that county governments would not be discouraged by the development but would go ahead with the meeting.

“We consulted and arrangements were done jointly with the national government and all the protocols followed.

It is not like no one was aware of this meeting,” Mr Ruto said at a meeting of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa), which preceded today’s conference.

He said county governments would not allow the national government to lord it over them because doing so was a contravention of the Constitution.

Wednesday, the Nation learnt that some civil servants who were already at Leisure Lodge in readiness for the meeting returned to Nairobi following the uncertainty.

Sources within government indicated that a minister, who was also listed to speak, asked the public servants not to attend.