Counties must move beyond bureaucracy to deliver for Kenyans

Kenya’s 13-year devolution journey has improved resource allocation and public services in marginalised regions.[Courtesy]

Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for the 2010 Constitution because they believed devolution was the answer to their problems.

For nearly five decades following independence, Nairobi held monopoly on national power and public resources, entrenching historical marginalisation across neglected regions from the Coast to the vast northern frontier. The creation of 47 county governments was designed specifically to dismantle the imperial presidency, end winner-take-all ethnic competition, and bring essential public services directly to the doorstep of ordinary citizens for whom remote central governance had failed.

Thirteen years into this democratic experiment, empirical data shows devolution has fundamentally altered Kenya's socio-economic landscape. Money has indeed followed the mandate. In the 2025/26 financial year, counties are projected to receive a monumental Sh633.3 billion, with health allocations alone rising by 11.7 percent to Sh154.58 billion.

Ground-level progress is undeniable: Agriculture’s GDP contribution rose from 22.4 to 23.2 percent, subsidised fertiliser access now reaches over 305,000 farmers, milk production expanded from 909 million to 1.01 billion liters, and maternal mortality dropped by 6.8 percent. With 1,590 new water infrastructure projects and 182,832 kilometers of local road networks, public resources are finally flowing toward the periphery.

These great gains, however, are shadowed by serious operational deficits that pose threat to devolution’s foundational promise. By the end of March 2026, a staggering Sh156.84 billion in pending bills had been accumulated. This huge financial backlog leaves contractors broke, small suppliers ruined, and workers without salaries.

The crisis is worsened  by slow National Treasury remittances, where only 50.3 percent of additional allocations were disbursed within stipulated timelines. In effect, this has simply brought back the friction that devolution was intended to eliminate.

More disturbing is the human cost of service delivery failures, especially in the public healthcare sector . While antenatal care visits increased and teenage pregnancy metrics improved, skilled birth attendance suffered a 23 percent decline. Expectant mothers regularly show up for routine care, but encounter health centers without essential medical supplies or qualified personnel during delivery.

The county health workforce shrank by 26 percent, dropping from 149,447 to 98,907 workers. This is worsened by an estimated 41,000 jobs losses following US-funded program cuts. On infrastructure, 51 percent of county roads remain unpaved 13 years later. These physical bottlenecks are compounded in counties that still report disputes with the national government. What this means is that localised governance still experiences serious hurdles.

Kenyans are undoubtedly better off under a devolved system, but the promise remains unevenly realised and expensively sustained. Counties cannot continue treating devolution as an administrative entitlement or hiding behind central disbursement delays. To fulfill the sacred covenant of 2010, county leadership must clear pending bills, resolve health staffing crises, and focus on delivering tangible benefits for ordinary citizens  who this system was created to serve.