Financing County Government Functions in Kenya: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

County government functions in Kenya like like those of most local authorities or sub national governments are essentially decentralized in nature. Their financing take the fiscal decentralized format and meaning and this forms the theme of this paper. Decentralization of some powers, functions, responsibilities and resources to sub national governments has been identified the World over as a model to address the increasing demand for better and efficient public services. Many countries have adopted this model with some variations including the use of de-concentration, delegation and devolution aspects. Kenya has a devolved system comprising two distinct and interdependent levels of government (national and county) with powers, resources, and provisions for consultation and cooperation in the implementation of assigned service delivery functions. One of the objects of the devolution model in Kenya is the provision of equitable sharing of national raised revenue between the national and county governments and among the county governments. This paper discusses financing of county government functions with a focus on the challenges and opportunities facing the process. The terms county governmennt and local authority will be used to also mean sub national government or auntority. The paper is based on a theoritical and descriptive desk review analysis of available literature on data, information and documents from national and county governments.