Residents of Nyamira County have given mixed reactions about the impact of devolution even as top county leadership and senior members of assemblies across the nation move to Meru for a devolution conference due to take place from Wednesday.
Devolution took root in 2013 and it has seen a number of functions such as Agriculture, Roads and Water devolved from the national government to county units.
Prof. Ondigi Abaya on Monday hailed the ‘significant’ impact of the devolved systems citing passable roads and improved healthcare as major gains since 2013 in the county.
“I totally support devolution because services have been brought closer to people. We have seen roads being opened and health centers improved significantly since devolution started being experimented. This is what Kenya needed at independence,” Ondigi said.
His sentiments were supported by lawyer Steve Mogaka, who said devolution had greatly impacted on quick service delivery to people as opposed to centralized system of governance.
“What people needed is quick delivery of services and to me I think we have seen a little change compared to when things were centralised. It’s only at its infantry stages and with time it is going to be a tremendous achievement,” he said.
However, economist Dr Stella Omari slammed the devolved units saying it had ‘deeply’ divided people alongside clans and brought about rampant corruption.
“What we did was devolving corruption and tribalism which is now being manifested as clanism. This is what we are seeing otherwise nothing concrete to celebrate about,” she said.
The three gave their insights at different phone interviews with the reporter on Monday.