By Robert Nyasato
Senators, Governors at Loggerheads Over Use of Devolved Resources
A storm is raging between governors and senators over the implementation of devolved functions, threatening to derail the 14-year-old devolution system, widely regarded as a success of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya.
On one hand, senators aver that they are defenders of county governments and have been fighting for more financial resources to be allocated to the counties.
On the other hand, governors are unhappy with the senators, accusing them of sabotage and claiming they are out to taint their names with allegations of financial impropriety with a view to taking over their seats in subsequent elections.
The governors went further, through their umbrella body — the Council of Governors (CoG) — and threatened to dishonor Senate summons, claiming senators were demanding huge bribes whenever they appeared before committees.
The senators did not refute the bribery claims but instead challenged the county bosses to name those involved in the scheme.
Further, the Upper House lawmakers alleged that governors dish out money to cover their tracks and avoid exposure by Senate oversight committees such as CPIC and CPAC.
Conversely, the elephant in the room remains: what happens after governors have been exposed during the committees’ grilling?
Apart from summoning governors to respond to audit queries and explain how they utilized allocated funds, the Senate has done little to ensure prudent use of public resources in the devolved units.
The Auditor-General, Nancy Gathungu, and the Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, have done exceptionally well in highlighting questionable utilization of devolved funds — an effort the Senate has not fully leveraged to discipline governors.
A year into the term of the third Senate, no single governor has been successfully prosecuted or censured for misusing public resources.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the 47 county governments were allocated a total of Sh415 billion as their equitable share of revenue — an increase of Sh30 billion from the 2024/25 financial year — against a national budget of Sh4.3 trillion, projected to rise to Sh4.7 trillion next year.
Although the Senate has, in full glare of the media, roasted governors over the misuse of funds placed in their hands — funds meant to implement projects that would uplift the living standards of wananchi at the grassroots, as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution — little has changed.
Feeling the heat and acknowledging it was a constitutional requirement to appear before the Senate, governors initially beat a retreat and began honoring summons. However, they later hatched strategies to outmaneuver the senators.
Some would appear and then ask for more time to prepare documents, feign sickness to be excused, or present voluminous records that senators have little time to comb through for irregularities.
Others resort to verbal exchanges with their respective senators, forcing committees to adjourn unceremoniously to avoid washing dirty linen in public.
It is not too much to point out that the Senate often appears hapless in the hands of the governors.
Apparently, no senator enjoys smooth working relations with their governors. Senators accuse county chiefs of running the counties in total disregard of their oversight role.
Governors, on the other hand, feel senators are hell-bent on encroaching on their mandate.
The Senate has also done little to ensure funds commensurate with fully devolved functions are released to the counties. Ideally, resources should follow functions.
For instance, health is a fully devolved function, yet policy remains at the national level with huge budgets that dwarf what is sent to counties to handle infrastructure, human resources, medicines, and other medical supplies.
Debate on why the national government is clinging to critical aspects of fully devolved functions should be revived by the Senate if devolution is to progress to another level.
Just as Raila Odinga once opined before his sudden demise, oversight of counties should largely be left to county assemblies while the Senate concentrates on policy legislation and the sharing of revenue to devolved units.
The Senate should therefore focus more of its energies on building the capacity of county assemblies to effectively carry out their oversight roles.
-The author is a member of the Kisii Press Club.