Country Profile

The effect of devolution on corruption is ambiguous. On the one hand, bringing government closer to the people could increase transparency and accountability. On the other hand, devolution of government may also result in devolution of corruption as the local governments become prone to corruption challenges such as capture by local elites, bribery in provision of services to citizens and patronage systems.

Kenya introduced the concept of devolution in the 2010 constitution. Although devolution has brought some success in bringing the government closer to Kenyan citizens and advancing development, evidence show that corruption is a major challenge affecting county governments. Nonetheless, various legal and institutional frameworks are in place which may be useful to address corruption in the devolved government. In addition, various donor-funded devolution programmes support transparency and accountability in Kenyan counties.