The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Africa Peer Review Mechanism Kenya Secretariat are spearheading a pilot self-assessment exercise in seven Western and Nyanza counties to evaluate and boost service delivery.
The targeted counties are Kakamega, Busia, Bungoma, and Vihiga in Western
and Siaya, Kisumu, and Homa Bay in Nyanza.
According to Paul Ong’wen from the Kakamega County Planning Unit, the initiative involves a series of focus group discussions and key informant interviews aimed at evaluating and strengthening the county peer review mechanism, a key element in fostering transparency and good governance at the county level.
Mr. Ong’weno, who made the remarks on Wednesday during the Lugari Ward focus group discussion at the Lugari ward offices in Lugari Sub County, noted that the county planning unit has formed ten separate teams meant to cover all the county’s 60 wards within three days.
He said: “The exercise is a kind of public participation, as the opinions of the selected representatives will help the county in planning and improving service delivery in all sectors, like education, roads, and agriculture.
“In each Ward, selected representatives of residents, including women, youth, farmers, academia, and people living with disabilities, among others, are taking part in the exercise. They will be giving us their opinions in socio-economic and political areas for the sake of the county’s development,” he said.
Ong’wen noted that the selected counties approved the initiative as a way of assessing themselves and improving service delivery both at the local and national levels.
A Lugari Ward resident and participant in the exercise, Mr. Joseph Ngaa, said the initiative is a milestone, especially for consumers of county and national government services.
He said the end report will enable the county government to identify where there are gaps and find ways of mitigating them for effective management of the funds available for those services.
He said: “It is important for the government to know where we are as a county, where we want to move, and what strategies are supposed to be put in place to propel us to where we want to go.
“The questionnaires we are filling out for the exercise are going to give insights on the kind of services the county and the national government are providing and how effective the services are for consumers.”
The county peer review mechanism has been initiated as a multiagency tool to be used not only in the promotion and entrenchment of good governance across the counties but also as a credible monitoring tool for tracking the implementation of County Integrated development.
Plans, Kenya’s Vision 2030, and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda
and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Additionally, the Council of Governors, in Resolution 32 of the Fourth Devolution Conference, agreed to implement peer reviews and peer-experience sharing in an effort to promote good governance and accelerate development in the counties.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait
