Analyzing the Impact of Devolution on Economic Development Potentialities in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya’s 2010 Constitution declares equity to be an underlying principle of governance, which is constituent with its provision for devolution. While institutionalization of equity is acknowledged by the previously marginalized, this is often not the case with beneficiaries of the old order. In order to efficaciously implement the letter and spirit of Kenya’s constitution devolution, it is important for Kenyans to understand that while nature vastly differentiated their country, successive governments did little to exploit opportunities for providing the scope for nationwide development. This failure inspired the demand for devolution during the two – decade constitutional review saga. This paper has attempted to analyze Kenya’s economic potentialities and challenges that come with a devolved government and has used comparative case analysis study from Brazil with lessons for Kenya as one of the developing nations aiming to foster economic development via devolution. The study relied on secondary data as a method of data collection from existing scholarly literature, including books, journals, research papers, official government and Non – Governmental Organizations’ reports and gazette articles and qualitative method to analyze data.

Key words: Constitution, Devolution, Economic Development and Fiscal Decentralization