The UK’s Department for International Development will provide £23.5m (approx Kes 3.7 billions) to help build capacity of the Kenyan county governments. Through the Kenya Devolution Support Programme (KDSP), DFID will work with several partners to improve county government planning, budgeting, human resource management, as well as citizen management. The programme will help to ensure that basic services continue to be delivered, while sustainable systems are developed, adding special focus on women youth and climate mitigation.

Speaking during the launch of the DFID funded, County Spatial Mapping Initiative, the Head of DFID Kenya, Ms Lisa Phillips said:

The UK believes that devolution holds great promise for Kenya. The potential benefits of having government closer to the people can only be achieved if county governments can better manage resources and better engage citizens in order to deliver on the devolution promise.

The Kenya Devolution Support Programme will specifically:

Provide direct training in priority areas identified with Kenyan partners focusing on long-term investments to institutionalize training

Support a pool of experts to assist counties in a number of areas such as programme based budgeting, participatory budgeting and planning, incorporate

The UK will also support Kenya Government institutions to do annual reports on the status of implementation of devolution, work with county governments to map natural resources and revenue enhancement measures, work with UNDP and UNWomen on gender audits of county plans and budgets.

Support the National Government and counties to develop and implement automated performance management systems promoting accountability among the county government officials.

The KDSP is anchored in the National Capacity Building Framework and will be delivered through the existing devolution support programmes of the World Bank, USAID and UNDP. The programme builds on the UK’s contribution over the last two years which covered transition of the devolved government.