President William Ruto has urged counties to tame their appetite for National Government revenue allocations.
He said it is time devolved units engaged in a long-and-hard thinking about sustainable and innovative resources to power their development.
Over-reliance on allocations, he explained, has the danger of limiting their plans.
“It is beginning to unfairly constrict the frontiers of productive possibility and limit their horizons of transformation,” he said.
He was speaking on Wednesday in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, during the official opening of the 8th Devolution Conference.
The President termed counties as the most sustainable drivers of prosperity and Bottom-Up Economic Transformation.
As such, he went on, they must be supported to bring about the much-desired change at the grassroots.
Even so, the President maintained, that the National Government will continue disbursing funds to counties in a more efficient and timely way.
“Delays in disbursing allocations to Counties have tremendous negative effects. There is no excuse for this; we simply have to do better.”
It is for this reason, he told the meeting, that for the first time since the advent of devolution, the inaugural disbursement of equitable allocation to counties under the Kenya Kwanza administration was implemented in full and on time.
“We made a firm commitment to the people of Kenya to strengthen devolution,” he stated.
He listed the transfer of all outstanding functions constitutionally earmarked to be performed by counties as one of the interventions being implemented.
Others include supporting counties in improving their capacity to generate their own income and ensuring that shareable revenue is transferred in a timely and predictable manner.
The Head of State explained that small enterprises can be supported by County Governments into sustainable pathways to higher earnings, wealth creation and poverty reduction.
The President argued that the National Government will work closely with Counties to elevate Kenya.
“If we focus thoroughly on collaboration with Counties, we can empower people and bring change at the grassroots,” said Ruto.
