Danish Ambassador to Kenya Ole Thonke (centre) with Plan International girl advocates Millicent Auma (left) and Cynthia Musimbi at a Girls Get Equal event in Kibra. [David Njaaga,Standard]

A diplomat has raised concern over rampant corruption in county governments, eight years since the onset of devolution.

Speaking yesterday during the eighth State of Devolution address attended by governors in Nairobi, Danish Ambassador Ole Thonke, who chairs Devolution Donor Working Group, however said there was a lot to celebrate about devolution.

“Devolution is key element in ensuring more equal distribution of resources and economic growth... I have seen that in my trips to various counties and it is amazing to witness this transformation so far,” he said

The envoy commended Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa for his efforts towards building good relations between county and central governments. “Article 210 of the Constitution speaks about openness and accountability and the citizens' participation in the development of Kenya, and it is important to have this contract for development and accountability purposes,” he said.

Council of Governors Chairperson Martin Wambora highlighted hits and misses made so far.

In the health sector, Mr Wambora said maternal and child health programmes had also yielded marginal increases in skilled birth attendance, contraceptives use and immunisation coverage.

“The county governments engaged 101,797 community health volunteers spread across 7,011 community units to promote public healthcare service delivery,” he said.

He said the community health volunteers had played a pivotal role in response to Covid-19 pandemic.

Wambora said county governments spared 7.3 per cent of 2020/2021 budgets for agriculture sector that had been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The county governments, he said, procured 2,192,493 doses of various vaccines for livestock vaccination, conducted 11,975 subsidised AI services, distributed 974 cattle, goats, and sheep breeding stock and introduced commercial poultry farming by supporting farmers with 31,703 improved kienyeji chicks.

Wambora said counties' challenges included delayed disbursement of equitable share to the county governments and delayed settlement of pending bills.