Counties in Kenya have been urged to work closely with academic institutions like the Universities to help make devolution a success.
Dr. Jason Lakin from International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBP) said universities are key stakeholders in development of counties.
“Universities are better drivers of any development in an area, they have the expertise that must be tapped to help in the growth of these counties,” he said.
Jason said there is huge numbers of professionals in different fields in most universities who can offer their expertise advice to counties in order to achieve development
He said IBP has been working in Kenya even with the national government to increase public engagement on issues of finances.
“For a long time we have worked with the national government and we thought it wise to scale our services to the counties with the advent of the new constitution to assist counties be able to come up with proper budget for its people,” he said.
Speaking at Maseno University on Thursday when launching a platform for dialogue on county planning and budgeting, Dr Jason said it’s critical to engage from an informed position especially in planning and budgeting processes
Maseno University Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge Partnership, Research and Innovations Prof Joseph Chacha said both the university and even counties stand to benefit from a mutual engagement to fulfill the demands of devolution.
“Counties should not work in isolation and any engagement we should be having will benefit all of us,” he said.