The Permanent Secretary for Arid, Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development Mr Harsama Kello has today informed the Senate that the Cabinet has resolved to do away with the regional authorities across the country.
This resolution comes in the wake of President William Ruto’s announcement that he had dissolved 47 state corporations as part of his Government’s austerity measures meant to heed Kenyans’ calls to curb wanton wastage of public resources.
While appearing before the Standing Committee on Trade, Industrialization, and Tourism earlier today, the ASALs and Regional Development PS informed the Senators that regional authorities were created to serve marginalized areas by ensuring equitable resource distribution across the country.
He explained that the decision to scrap the regional authorities was reached by the highest decision-making organ in the country since their functions were overlapping with those of the county governments, adding that their existence wasn’t economically viable to the country.
“Following this resolution, I have formed a committee that will undertake the transition process. The lifetime of these authorities will lapse in June 2025,” Mr Kello said.
To quell the concerns of the Members of the Senator Lenku Seki-led Committee on whether county governments are involved in the transition process, PS Kello said that the Council of Governors has a representative in the transitional committee which is chaired by the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) representative.
Senators urged the Ministry of East African Community, ASALs, and Regional Development to consider transferring the staff and assets of the said authorities to counties so that county governments can benefit from their expertise and infrastructure.
“What will you do with the assets of these authorities, will you transfer them to ministries or county governments?” Kajiado Senator Lenku Seki enquired.
“Most of these regional authorities were involved in the establishment of county industrial parks and value addition programs. Transfer their assets and staff to counties so that counties don’t recruit people to run industrial parks whereas there’re experts to do the work,” Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago quipped.
The Senators also called on the Ministry to consider conducting public participation before officially disbanding the regional authorities to ensure the public has the final say on their dissolution.
The Permanent Secretary was appearing before the Trade Committee to respond to a request for a statement by Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina regarding the operations of Ewaso Ngiro Tannery and Leather Factory in Narok County.
