A Nakuru-based Devolution Lobby group has called on the County Assembly of Nakuru to ensure there are policies in place that can strengthen devolution.
The Lobby group known as ‘Friends of Devolution’ while lauding the strides made six years since the devolved system came into place says that county assemblies have a major role to play through the enactment of policies that will strengthen devolution even more.
Through Chairman Benson Macharia, the lobby group that has been on the forefront in educating the citizens on matters devolution says devolution has its challenges but cannot be compared to the fruits.
While rating the current county government of Nakuru at 60 per cent as far as development is concerned, Macharia challenged the county assembly of Nakuru to also put mechanisms in place that ensures public participation for any policy or laws passed in the house.
He says the assembly should safeguard the interests of the people of Nakuru by ensuring also that the executive does not come up with laws and policies that intimidate the citizens.
“The current county government has tried to ensure openness unlike the previous and on development, I can say we are at 60%. Our appeal is to the county assembly to also ensure full public participation on laws and policies passed,” said Macharia.
Already the county government of Nakuru through the Department of Economic Planning has come up with a guide to help the public understand the budget process.
Macharia says this will help the citizens during the public participation process on matters budget noting that “We will be pushing to have the budget documents translated to Swahili so that the elderly can also understand."
In 2016 the then county assembly passed a bill on public participation but it was shelved and nothing has been heard about it.
However, according to the chair Friends of Devolution, the bill did not materialise into law owing to the fact that the Senate was also working on national guidelines on matters public participation.
Macharia says if there are guidelines on public participation in every county, devolution can be achieved through various development projects that will be affirmed by the citizens.