A
majority of Kenyans support a referendum to change constitutional provisions on
revenue sharing between national and county governments.
According
to a survey released on Wednesday, 51 per cent of the 2,397 adults polled in
the Afrobarometer survey said they supported a referendum to increase revenue
allocation to the devolved units.
According
the survey conducted between November 12 and December 5 last year, another 37
per cent disapproved of such a vote, while seven per cent did not know whether
such a move was important. Two per cent refused to answer the question.
In
another question, which was almost similar, respondents were asked if the
Constitution should be amended to address revenue sharing and to strengthen
resolution of disputes between county and national governments.
In
response, 61 per cent said they supported while 23 per cent said they either
disagreed or strongly disagreed. Only seven per cent said they neither agreed
nor disagreed while eight per cent said they did not know the answer to the
question.
The
survey also revealed that 47 per cent of the respondents felt that the national
government was not disbursing funds adequately to counties, while another 34
per cent said they were satisfied.
Five
per cent neither agreed nor disagreed, while another 14 per cent expressed
ignorance on whether the funds were being distributed adequately or not.
Afrobarometer
is an African-led non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude
surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions and related issues in
more than 30 countries in Africa.
Its
survey in Kenya was conducted by the University of Nairobi’s Institute for
Development Studies.
PROVIDE
AN IMPETUS
Governors
and the Opposition coalition have been pushing for separate referenda, both
aimed at increasing county allocations, and the survey is likely to provide an
impetus for the two camps to revive their flagging push for the vote.
The
survey further indicated that a majority of Kenyans were finding it difficult
to participate in key county activities such as budgeting and planning forums,
while at the same time lacking access to information on county budgets.
The
polls showed that 80 per cent of respondents in all the 47 counties found it
very difficult to participate in county budgeting and planning, while another
81 per cent found it hard to influence decision-making in their counties.
On
another question, 78 per cent said they had no access to information on county
budgets, legislation and project plans.
On
whether they had ever attended a county planning meeting, 73 per cent said they
had never, but would do so if they had a chance.
At
least 12 per cent said they would never attend such a forum, while nine per
cent said they had had a chance to participate. Another four per cent said they
had been in such forums “several times”.
“This
lack of participation is very worrying, yet it is the core of devolution,” said
Prof Winnie Mitullah, while presenting the findings of the survey in Nairobi,
on Wednesday.
She
said a study should be conducted to find out why the public is unwilling to participate
in such important civic undertakings.
The
survey also revealed that 59 per cent of the respondents had more trust in
their governors as opposed to 51 per cent who had confidence in their members
of county assemblies (MCAs).
Support
for governors in rural areas was high at 62 per cent and lower in towns at 54
per cent. MCAs also attracted more support in rural areas (54 per cent), but
were less trusted in towns (45 per cent).
Governors
were also perceived to have performed better in delivering their promises for
the past 12 months (at the time the poll was done) and polled at 61 per cent,
while MCAs scored an approval rating of 55 per cent.
MCAs
were also perceived to be more corrupt, with 37 per cent of the respondents
saying “all of them or most” of the MCAs were corrupt, while 33 per cent
thought the same of governors and officials in their offices.
“Rural
areas and places which were previously marginalised seem to appreciate
governors and devolution very much due to the development and benefits they
have seen,” said Prof Mitullah.
In
terms of service delivery, provision of basic health services was rated the
highest since the onset of devolution, with 54 per cent of the respondents
saying this had been handled “fairly well or very well”.
BADLY
HANDLED
Maintenance
of local markets received an approval rating of 46 per cent with another 51 per
cent saying markets had been badly handled.
On
road maintenance, 43 per cent were satisfied while 55 per cent of those polled
expressed dissatisfaction with the way counties were handling road
rehabilitation.
The
respondents were almost equally divided on whether county governments had the
ability to raise their own resources, with 42 per cent agreeing that the
devolved units were able to raise extra funds while 41 per cent disagreed.
No comments:
Post a Comment