The Kakamega government and the Water Services Regulatory Board have clashed over the quality and standards in the provision of water.
In an advisory on June 6, board CEO Robert Gakubia said the change in the status of the Kakamega County Water and Sanitation Company from a company limited by shares under the Water Act 2016 to a corporation under the County Government Water Act migrated the company from national standards that should ensure water supply meets the standards for the safety of people.
Gakubia said the Kakamega County Water Act does not recognise the necessary linkages with the national water policy, national standards in corporate governance and principles of commercial orientation that are key to sustainable supply.
He advised the county government to amend its Water Act 2019 to revert to a company limited by shares, not a corporation, to ensure its sustainability.
But county attorney Moses Sande said the county did not violate any law by switching from a company to a corporation. He said the County Governments Act allows counties to choose how they want to provide water to their residents — either through a company or corporation.
"The county water law does not address quality and standards because we know that is a function of the national government. Wasreb should develop guidelines for the standards and quality they want us to follow," he said on the phone.
"They should not attempt to run away from their responsibility of scrutinising what counties are doing."
Sande said the county decided to register a corporation under its own law to avoid a situation where the devolved unit would register a company under the Registrar of Companies under the national government.
"We have told them to go to court if they feel the county violated any law, and we're ready to battle it out there and correct these things once and for all," he said.
But Wasreb feels that the departure from governance standards in the Companies Act 2015 was ill-advised as the corporation model is inferior and an attempt to claw back the principles of governance in Article 10 of the Constitution, based on lessons learnt in the water sector reforms.
It has advised that county governments retain the company limited by share model to grow their existing companies for commercially viable entities run according to sound business principles and Article 10 of the Constitution.
"Likewise, Wasreb advises the county government of Kakamega as it has advised other counties that sought to migrate to the corporation model to amend the Kakamega County Water Act (No. 3 of 2019) and align the institutional framework herein to national standards in the corporate governance guidelines and the Water Act 2016," the letter reads.
