| dc.description.abstract | Poverty, inequality and social exclusion are deeply-rooted structural and historical phenomena in Kenya. Successive Kenyan governments have attempted fiscal depentralization as a way of ensuring the country achieves equitable development across the many regions. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 further entrenches decentralization through equitable sharing of revenue between the national and county governments. Despite the introduction of a multiplicity of decentralized funds over the years, there is little improvement in the living standards and circumstances of the poor. Lack of accountability in the management of decentralised funds has often been identified as the core factor limiting the attainment of the desired impacts.
The study seeks to identify weaknesses in the legal and institutional framework of the decentralised funds with a view to injecting effectiveness and accountability into the management of the funds. A comparative analysis of Mexico and the Philippines is used to come up with the best practices for replication in Kenya.
The study finds that effective management of decentralised funds is a key ingredient to successful fiscal decentralization and recommends a management model that is underpinned by the following key pillars; revenue assignments, expenditure assignments, intergovernmental fiscal transfers and sub-national borrowing. In view of the proposed devolution by the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the study recommends a clear, consistent and stable legal and regulatory framework which assigns roles to the different levels of government in a much more transparent and predictable way. | en |
