Aims
To assess how selected County Governments have allocated funds to the water and sanitation sector from FY 2014/15 to 2017/18, and what areas these funds cover, providing evidence that can highlight patterns in allocations, prioritise budget expenditure, and encourage departments to effectively and efficiently improve service delivery.
Findings
Weak linkages remain between policy, planning, budgeting and service delivery in Kenyan Counties. There is a lack of clear national policy guidelines on costing and budgeting for constitutional functions assigned to both national and county. Counties face significant cash flow challenges and budgetary pressures leading to high budget deficits, rising debts and poor service delivery. Most sector or departmental budgets are not disaggregated, so expenditure is not readily identifiable it is therefore hard to track.
Next steps
Improved County legislation and investment in water and sanitation will be required, as will County-wide master plans. Financial planning, management and tracking are necessary tools to be further developed.