'47 counties are too many!' Treasury CS Mbadi laments over bloated Gov’t

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has faulted devolution which resulted in the formation of 47 counties, instead opining that Kenya should revert to the 8 provinces as in the previous Constitution or a maximum of 14.

CS Mbadi says that the 47 devolved units have become unsustainable for the government owing to the ballooning wage bill.

Speaking on Wednesday during Citizen TV’s JKLive Show, Mbadi took issue with the current system of governance, saying it leads to mismanagement of funds.

“You go to counties and you will find all kinds of staff, you find directors of fishermen, boda bodas, music, culture directors earning big salaries, with deputies, we have so many people. Again, that is not withstanding the fact that 47 counties are just too much for a country,” he said.

“47 counties each one with full-fledged government, a governor who is the mini president with a deputy who is running mate, and struggling to find work to do and the you have ministers, all of them went for 10 which is the maximum, we have Chief Officers, more than 10, and then we have county assemblies…”

Mbadi’s suggestion came after show host Jeff Koinange posed; “If it was upto you, would you go back to the original eight provinces that we used to have?”

In his response, the CS suggested that the eight provinces before the formation of the 2010 Constitution would come in handy to address the current financial crisis affecting the country and also ensure resources trickle down to the grassroots.

“I would go for a maximum of 14. There were 8 provinces but if you look at Rift Valley, it was like two-three provinces combined and also the Eastern province,” he said.

“I would go for a maximum of 14 but even 8 would still serve us perfectly well, with devolution of resources going to the grassroots. We can devolve resources without devolving the heavy government to the grassroots. It is unsustainable.”

According to the Treasury boss, the formation of the 47 counties was bundled with more legislative subdivisions including sub-counties and many more wards.

“We have a very expensive government. Today we are paying Ksh.80 billion per month at the national government level for salaries. Per year it is Ksh.960 billion, it is going to a trillion and we are collecting Ksh.2.5 trillion and we are spending on loan repayment about Ksh.1.1 trillion so where do you get money for development?” Posed Mbadi.

“In the old days when we first had the Majimbo Constitution we had regional governments and assemblies a bit fewer compared to today. Kenyans should get into a conversation whether is this the type of devolution that we needed? No, we needed resources to be devolved not too much government. We have so many MCAs, and Kenyans have been electing very few women and we have also gove ourselves a constitution where we are saying not less than two thirds should be of the same gender…so now we end up nominating so many people.”