The merger of counties will spur growth in various regions, Africa Union’s High Representative on Infrastructure Development Raila Amolo Odinga has said.
Speaking during the sixth Devolution in Kirinyaga on Wednesday, Raila, who has vowed to work with President Uhuru Kenyatta, urged leaders to back him in the fight for the merger of counties.
He also said that the merger will create big economic units for better service delivery. He argued that most of the counties are too small, which makes it hard for them to realize development.
"One of the facts we are dealing with but hardly acknowledging is that a number of counties as they are today are too tiny to compete for external and internal development using their resources,” he said in part.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa has, however, said that the government has no plans to merge counties as speculated. Wamalwa noted that counties have played an immense role as far as national development is concerned.
He also said that Kenyans are happy with the fruits of devolution following the promulgation of the new constitution
“If you ask any Kenyan they will happily tell you that they have ’seen the Government’ since the advent of devolution six years ago,” he said in part, as quoted by Standard.