Kisii Governor James Ongwae and Constitutional Implementation Commission chairman Charles Nyachae put their rivalry politics under cover, to fast-track achievements made by county governments.
Mr Ongwae on Thursday noted that devolution had been a huge success for the last two and half years, taking into consideration various achievements made by counties, and therefore warned the national government against sabotaging operations in county devolved units.
Speaking on Thursday at Gusii stadium during the launch of the second assessment of the systems of devolved government and the 2014/2015 annual report by the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Ongwae challenged the national government to devolve funds for devolved functions to enhance service delivery to Kenyans.
He accused the national government of ignorance for allegedly delaying to release funds to the counties to ensure service delivery and payment of workers that he said contributes to strikes experienced in different counties. He said funds should be trickled down in time, arguing that the problem is caused by unclear transitory arrangement.
Governor Ongwae and his Deputy who is also national chairman for council of deputy governors, Joash Maangi stood against any attempt to reverse devolved sectors to national government on an excuse of mismanagement of the units by counties. One of the devolved units that the national government is said be eying for reversal is health sector.
Instead, they blamed the national government for the challenges surrounding counties and therefore asked it to be in the fore front in support of devolution.
Mr Ongwae hailed CIC for its role in championing for successful devolution, and asked the national government to support devolution.
“We have achieved a lot in the two and half years we have been in place as county governments. We know President Uhuru Kenyatta supports devolution but a few people who surround him want devolution to fall short. We ask him to help us in making devolution a success by fully devolving funds to devolved units like health and fully devolve sectors like roads and infrastructure for easy management,” said Ongwae.
He added: “We are also faced with other myriad challenges like payment of salaries to our staff. We have not received funds from the Treasury for the month of July and August. We have not had this problem in the past. The national government pays its workers in time and I don’t know why it is not channeling down funds to pay our workers and perform other functions. This is thwarting devolution and we therefore ask the national government to look into that issue to avert unrest among workers that is experienced and looming in some counties.”