Housing is a Devolved Function, Rasanga Adds Voice to Housing Levy Debate

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Former Governor of Siaya Cornell Rasanga Amoth has added his voice to the ongoing exchange on the housing levy saying that housing is a Devolved Function and the State should not control funds meant for the function.

Speaking to The Star Rasanga said:

“The cardinal principle of devolution is that once a function is passed to county governments it is supposed to go with the money. All efforts must, therefore, be made to pass the resources to counties.

Unfortunately, this is yet to happen 100 per cent in our case, more than 10 years since the dispensation of a devolved system of government kicked off. The pending amounts are colossal.

I recently saw a senator comment about the division of revenue. His take was that if you can release all the monies for devolved functions, including the additional amounts which the Senate still fought, the amount is colossal. In our time, we did what we could but they never released.

To solve this debacle, it will take the willingness of the concerned departments to pass the functions and the attached resources 100 per cent. I fear that the current administration is keen on clawing back on more functions.

If you look at the housing project, for instance, it is a devolved function but President William Ruto is doing it as if it is a national government function. In most of these projects, you can see the national government is holding the money. This is the case with respect to water, roads, health, and agriculture functions.

The roads, for instance, are in counties and you wonder what the place of the national government in the same is. They are not in the purview of the national government but they have held on to the money. Assume that all that money was down here, the roads would have been different. It is all about money.

Kenya Kwanza appears to be more interested in holding back a lot of cash. If you look at the amount of money they have allocated, it is more in areas where they have more interest. An example is the Trade ministry, which had been allocated a lot of money.

They need to change their tack if the devolution dream is to be fulfilled 100 per cent.”