| dc.description.abstract | Decentralization has been increasingly seen and adopted worldwide as a guarantee against
discretionary use of power by central elites as well as a way to enhance the efficiency of social
services provision by allowing a closer link between public policies and the desires, needs and
aspirations of people at the grassroots.
Over the last few decades a growing number of countries have moved to decentralize their
governance systems by devolving significant governing authority down from the centre to lower
levels, or at least decentralizing some significant elements of government responsibility down to
local levels. Increasingly decentralization has become a fundamental democratic principle.
Good democracy requires that people are able to elect their own local leaders and
representatives, and that these local governments have some real power to respond to the needs
of the people. In short decentralization is increasingly being demanded from below, through
pressure from grassroots, and is embraced for its potential to enhance the depth and legitimacy of
democracy.
Indeed, decentralization can strengthen democracy and enhance its stability by helping to hold
the country together by giving each group some control of its own affairs. It may also help to
sustain the political system by distributing power among a wider array of political parties, each
of which finds that it has some tangible stake in the the system. And it speaks to the aspirations
of people and communities who simply want government to be closer and more responsive to
their needs.
The clamour for constitutional reforms in Kenya core driviving force was decentralization of
government which was highly centralized and oppressive.
The Kenya‟s constitution 2010 entrenches devolved government by guaranteeing minimum
unconditional transfer of power and resources to the counties under the new dispensation.
Consequently, there are great opportunities and enormous challenges waiting Kenya and
occasioned by the new dispensation, which will determine the fate of the country politically,
economically, and socially after the recent elections which kicked off implementation of
devolution and anticipated benefits in the years ahead.
Despite the new devolved constitutional dispensation and coming in of two tier governance
system a lot of teething problems have been experienced in the coursr of implementation of the
new system. The politics of devolution currently being experienced in Kenya explain the high
intensity hopes, and expectations that have been pinned on it. It also means that there are high
risks if not handled and implemented properly. The teething problems being experienced in
implementation of devolution in Kenya is the core driving force which informed the quest for
this study to be able to understand the experience of other countries on the same.
This study examines the challenges and opportunities of decentralized political systems with
special reference to Kenya‟s new devolved political structure. The study also attemps to assess
the decentralized political structures of India and Nigeria to derive lessons for Kenya. The
project argues from both a positive and negative angle and the lessons leant will go a long way
into shaping Kenya‟s devolved system which has experienced a lot of initial teething problems in
the early stages of its implementation. | en_US |
