responsibilities during transition

TABLE 2.1 The Kenya Transition Authority’s asset management functions and responsibilities during transition

Transition period: Adoption of TDG Act 2012, three years after first election March 9, 2012–March 27, 2016 (texts from TA Law 2012)

Transition Authority is custodial of county assets in transition period.

Moratorium on transfer of assets. . . “local authority shall not transfer assets and liabilities during the transition period. But local authority shall—during phase one, transfer assets or liabilities with the approval of the Authority, during phase two, transfer assets or liabilities with the approval of the Authority; The Authority may, on its own motion or on a petition by any person, review or reverse any irregular transfer of assets.”

Phase one Phase two

Enactment of TA Law until Induction of County Governments March 9, 2012–March 27, 2013 Induction of County Governments plus three years March 27, 2013–March 4, 2016

Transition Authority: (1) audit assets and liabilities of local authorities, to establish the asset, debts, and liabilities of each Local Authority; (2) audit local authority infrastructure in the counties, to establish the number and functionality of plant and equipment in Local Authorities; and (3) audit the government infrastructure in the counties, to establish the number and functionality of plant and equipment for the purpose of vesting them to either level of government.

Source: Based on TDG Act 2012. Note: TA = Transition Authority; TDG = Transition to Devolved Government. Transition Authority: (1) complete any activity that may be outstanding from Phase One; (2) oversee the transfer of functions from the national government to the county government; (3) facilitate the county governments in the performance of their functions.

an enormous task to establish and verify asset inventories from scratch before the election.

Legislators assumed that the TA would be efficient, effective, and fast, and thus it could complete most of the assigned tasks of facilitating asset transfers— that is, creating initial asset inventories and verifying and auditing all county assets and liabilities inherited from defunct local entities—within 12 months before the time of the local election and induction of new county governments on March 27, 2013. This period was called phase one of the four-year foreseen total transition period (see table 2.1). The initial vision suggested that in phase two, that is, within three years after induction of county governments, the TA would need only to focus on completing some outstanding activities, facilitate transfer of assets from national entities to counties, and help county governments perform their functions. However, in practice, the sequence of events and the groundwork appeared to be quite different from the initial optimistic visions.

The institutional framework of AM and transfer drastically changed further on March 4, 2016, when the TA was dissolved and the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC), a national government agency that supported the Summit and the Council of Governors with policy formation, was mandated to continue facilitating and completing the transfer of assets and liabilities to counties, both inherited from defunct local entities and transferred from various agencies of the national government. IGRTC also works with the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) on setting policies on management and transition of assets and liabilities.

This was a turning point since no asset or liability was transferred to counties by that date—the end of a four-year transition period and nearly three years into devolution. One serious shortcoming of this new institutional arrangement was that IGRTC received only a symbolic budget as compared with the former budgets of the TA, it received no staff, and it was short of expertise on AM and transfers. This arrangement eventually changed the Kenya asset transfer modality from a centralized to a decentralized model, in which IGRTC became a facilitator