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Devolution

CMD-Kenya organised county workshops which were aimed at facilitating parties to:

Understand and appreciate their role in starting up devolved governance.
To enhance their presence at the counties and to prepare for increased responsibilities and decision making at that level.
To streamline their structures in order to effectively discharge additional responsibilities i.e. preparation of party lists and creating a pool of candidates to vie for the various electoral seats.

The workshops familiarised themselves with the concept of devolved governance as provided for in the Constitution of Kenya and attempted to address misconceptions about the role of political parties in devolved governance.

Some of the topics covered included:

Identifying region specific interests and recommending ways for smooth transition into county governance.
The relationship between the national and county leadership.
The role of political parties in county governance.
The risks, challenges and opportunities of devolved governance.
Pointing out the resources available to each county as well as its limitations.
To prepare to face the challenges for devolved governance
Building local capacities and citizen participation.
To acquaint political party leaders with proposed pieces of legislation i.e. Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011, The Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Bill, 2011, The County Governments Financial Management Bill, 2011, The Devolved Governments Bill, 2011, and the The Transition to Devolved Government Bill, 2011.

Besides, individual political parties were availed some funds to enable them to review their constitutions, party nomination rules and regulations by aligning them to the constitution 2010 by strengthening county structures in line with the expectations of devolved governance.