CoG vice chair Mutahi Kahiga speaks in Naivasha during governors' sensitisation on the Kenya Devolution Support Programme II, May 27, 2025. /COG/XThe Council of Governors vice chairperson Mutahi Kahiga has called for the World Bank-supported devolved projects to include the Council as an implementing partner.
Speaking during the ongoing governors' sensitisation on the Kenya Devolution Support Programme II in Naivasha, the Nyeri Governor said the council should equally be well resourced to implement the projects to deepen devolution and improve service delivery.
"If you want KDSP to succeed, the channel must be the Council of Governors.Let us stop having some pseudo ways of reaching out because that creates confusion and we are not able to move," he said.
The Kenya Devolution Support Program (KDSP) is a four year program of $200 million (Sh25.8bn) financed by the World Bank to support capacity building and technical assistance at the county level.
The programme support capacity building and institutional strengthening in the five key result areas of County Financing and Expenditure Management , HR reforms, performance management and citizen engagement.
Kahiga said as things stand currently, the CoG, which is the coordinating entity of all the 47 devolved units, cannot continue to be coordinated at the National Treasury yet it has a fully functioning secretariat capable of coordinating World Bank projects.
"We cannot be coordinated at Treasury, we cannot even be coordinated at Devolution because Devolution is not even a ministry. It's just a small sector put somewhere under the office of the Deputy President," he said.
The CoG deputy chair criticised the coordination structure saying the DP already has so much on his plate.
Mutahi called on implementing partners to support the proposed coordination structure and let the national government handle the collateral bit of projects.
"The implementation of any programme, be it a fertiliser programme can only be implemented at the counties. The counties have structures but at the top we have CoG. Therefore as the vice chair of CoG, I make a plea that for every programme, let us have a segment of funding for the CoG to help you implement that specific programme."
Mutahi said the proposal should not be seen as a fight between the Council and the national government.
KDSP is a performance-based grant—from the central government to counties.
Disbursement of funds follows a set of national and county-level results, which are well defined and converted into measurable indicators.
Counties are free to ‘opt into’ the grant, which will entail agreeing to prepare and implement a capacity-building plan, an annual performance assessment, and reporting on grant funds received, among other ‘conditions’.
