Evaluation of county plans necessary

All the 47 counties have so far received about Sh1 trillion from the Treasury. Kenyans would like to know the impact of the projects implemented as per the county integrated plans for 2013-2017.

The same way we get an independent auditor to look at expenditure, we should have independent unbiased project evaluators. Each devolved unit developed a County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) to determine annual budget.

Although the CIDP has a provision for monitoring and evaluation and reporting mechanisms, we have not heard much about the projects progress impact. The main concentration has been on budgets and audits which may not be very relevant to the local citizens.

Meaningful engagement of citizens was done to ensure active participation and prioritisation of development projects per county mainly through the county budget and economic forum.

CIDP evaluation before August 2017 will critically examine, collect and analyse information about the county development activities. This should involve local citizens and this will help make informed judgements about development done, improve its effectiveness and inform future planning decisions.

Campaign period is approaching and the politicians will use development projects as a campaign tool. However, the electorate should be convinced by facts on the ground and this can be achieved through documentation and sharing of independent participatory evaluation reports per county which is unbiased to demonstrate impact.

This should correlate with the funds allocation to the targeted development projects. Besides, the independent evaluation will help examine the process of implementation of development projects and determine whether they are being implemented as planned and whether the intended outcome is being achieved. This will help the county leaders in consultation with the citizens to reorganise priorities where necessary.