Governors have signed agreements with the central government to transfer health, education and trade functions to local governments.
The development is part of an ongoing exercise to assess the devolved functions involving the Governor and Chief Secretary of Naivasha, Nakuru County.
Twelve functions designated for devolution have been identified as pending and are still being performed by government ministries, departments and agencies.
These are regional development authorities. Trade; Tourism, Wildlife, Culture. Agriculture; Health; Energy; Land. public works; housing and urban development; education; environment and disaster management;
This was disclosed by Kichinji Kiraugu, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee, who said the verification exercise, which was expected to take three weeks, was carried out “without any dispute between the national government and the county government.” “It's been successful so far,” he said.
The central government maintains about 19 elements of the trade and industry function, which comes with a budget of Sh4.8 billion.
The agreement means each county will be fully involved in developing and implementing county policies regarding trade licensing, trade development and regulation, providing business development services, and organizing trade shows and exhibitions.
In addition, we also build, manage and manage markets, allocate stalls to traders and operators, license markets and aggregation centers, allocate and identify land for market sites, develop value-added products, counterfeit and substandard products. We will continue to carry out monitoring, etc. function.
In the cooperative subsector, counties are responsible for promoting and implementing pre-cooperative education.
Speaking in Naivasha, Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Simon Chergui commended the districts for allowing the central government to develop standards, by-laws, economic assessments and application documents for the registration of cooperatives.
He requested the districts to allow the central government to issue registration certificates to ensure the operation of cooperatives across districts.
In education, there has been a push and pull between the two tiers of government over the management of early childhood education centers and education centers since the Presidential Education Reform Task Force recommended that the functions of early childhood education centers be recentralized.
In the health sector, the county will license and manage primary health care, ambulance services, public food sales operations, and promote veterinary services. However, the management of medical personnel, the regulation of cemeteries, funeral homes, and crematoriums, and the management of waste disposal will be prohibited.
