yes-its important for GoK and donors to reconcile returns -there will be double allocation for the same project-Even Governers can do what central Gorvenment does when projects are directly funded-The cool way to eat money is to alocate money for a directly EU funded education projects,Agloleasing -the main desease in kenya is open theft

can't celebrate yet cos i don't what devolution is.am very skeptical and fear it might be another method of distributing poverty,misery, mismanagement and corruption equitably to the common wananchi in all the 47 counties rather than the much publicized wealth

This a welcome move !

That's the beauty of devolution, no more "hatuko ndani ya serikali" syndrome will go and guess what if it works no kenyan will ever be interested on who occupies state house but instead who occupies county house. there will be no post election violence, nusu mkate govt., etc. Machakos governor go for it and show the way by investing first in water and roads and give out more free land then the rest will follow. na hii ndio UGATUZI

This is good. The Treasury does not have enough money to cover the counties deficit. If they had they will give each county the money they need in their analysed, audited and approved budgets.The World Bank or any other lender can then loan only the deficit in the approved county budget with automatic guarantee of the central government. No county should be allowed more money beyond what it presented in its budget.

I hope these strategies by WB will not be used to divide us -and conquer by creating financially unhealthy counties or otherwise. Kudos to Ms Odhiambo for raising sensible point in the circumstances.

be careful about double accountingand dobl returns-WB can give money directly for some project and still central gorvenment the same -projects are accounted seprately and returns made-its a common game in GoK-thats how some minintry of education funds from EU and GoK was eaten -also many other money directly given to projects by NGOs

Come again?

I am not for this idea, if the counties misuse their money, it is the whole country which will suffer because it will be held liable to pay coz the national govt has secured the loan.

for 50 yrs it was done through your method of choice and looting was the norm by a few closer to prezo and we all paid for it .lets have it at county level we will definitely have a few closer to the 47 governors stealing and we shall all pay for that. we will then end-up with each of the 47 governors each owning a constituency of grabbed land.and the list of the top rich will be governors in the order of the amount of money allocated to the county i.e kidero- NRB;Oparanya- kakamega; Mbugua- nkr;lusaka-BG;Obure-kisii; joho- mombasa etc you see this list will come from our 42 tribes all of us will also pay for it.what a better way to distribute wealth one does not need to travel to Nairobi to rob from a rich-man,just turn to the neighbour

I propose then we devolve the h government further to the village level... i.e. Kangemi County, etc that way at least my relative will have the wealth further distributed to him and the "development" comes closer to me

The government is probably hoping for a win-win strategy: either much of the debts will eventually be written off (the international community is continually writing off he debts of third world nations), or if the debt is not written off then it will rail against the "wicked world bank neocolonialists...". The Kenyan government has proved very adept at urinating on the feet of those who help it.

I am glad the money goes directly to counties. When the governors succeed or fail to deliver, they will be directly accountable to their people.

As long as the county governments don't go for seminars and expensive retreats with this money we are okay.

So now we'll see better schools, more hospitals, less garbage and other basic services to the people. Please no private jets for the governors yet!

Who pays the money if looted by those governors,most of who are former MPs best known for corruption.

the same people that paid for Anglo-leasing, Goldenberg, free primary education, maize scandals and all those that i have forgotten

it's the same people who would still pay if it were looted by senior gvt officials .

be careful counties will start borrowing beyond their means and soon will be drowning in debt,

the govt currently has debts running to 100 of billions with nothing to show in 43 counties

If you have a credit card that's already what you are doing. It's hard to come by a bank which does not adore its big spenders. As for drowning in debt, I'd rather depart this life in that fashion than be eternally in want.

WB leading even CBK in devolving funds. ...hope we will not devolve corruption.This comes to the type of governor we have.Machakos has a headstart here...congrats H.E A. Mutua

This WB woman is just engaging in road-side declarations and just shows how out of touch she is. This will never happen because The Treasury will not agree to this kind of micromanagement. They will not guarantee payment for money sent to somebody else. Even the 15% of the budget will be doled out after approval of county budget and subject to Treasury financial controls.
Contrary to what most of you think, the big banks who lend through the WB bank have nowhere to lend their money at the rates they charge us and therefore, do not have the leverage to push such a deal.

you mean world bank have employees who have no clue of what goes on??

say you don't understand and let some one inform you. WB for long time has been supporting some project without channeling money to CBK all the govt need is to identify project and cost associated with it and wait for its conclusion and start repaying it.

Since you seem to be in the know, please let me know: the WB gave to the government but was disappointed and decided to change tact and loan directly to NGO's and individual projects. If the government failed the WB, it is likely that the counties (serikali ndogo ndogo) will do the same. Now the big question is, is there a possibility that eventually the WB - and IMF, EU and all other smartly initialized bodies - will decide to lend directly to the individual? This may not be a very bad idea since I am supposed to be the ultimate beneficiary of these loans and I haven't seen a penny from the other loot even though I'm dearly paying for them in sweat and blood. I hope our fearless leaders can pick up this issue when they make their next visit to Obama's Washington.

then we will see which country will develop fast. if all governors are good to his/her people then Kenya will be a country with many cities to attract many developments from alround the world

County Dan, County!

if our MPs want more salary, wait they get loan from world bank fund they will increase their salary as they wish. then you will see how people will complain

please leave some for Ruto, he needs a private jet badly.

Am sure they'll start condemning the World bank in parliament!

Good new indeed!
We don't need the central government thieves in Nairobi robbing us blind.

Haiya! Kwani where have you been? Didn't you hear that after deporting our Broda Chinedu, the authorities decided to deport the thieves in Nairobi back to their counties? Nairobi is now so clean that even the central gava is pleading with Dr Kidero to consult for them and give them management tips. But, you know Evans, ana-ringa kidogo till 2017.

Why do we need these loans?

Great news..and if the counties believe they can cheza with the WB and fiddle them, they will get a very rude shock indeed. The WB is stringent. But loaning and disbursing directly is fine..as long as the Treasury guarantees it which is only fair otherwise a county could borrow Kenya into bankrupcy

some counties could really use government advice and a follow up close auditing on the spending.

Quite right, but I'd rather they get this advice from a fourth-form commerce student than the central government.

I find this reasonable

Think again! Do we really need these loans? If the national Gov could live within its means for the last few years, why take us back to bad old days of dependency? treasury should resist and tell WB to go fund other more needy countries...

Without these loans, the corrupt predators would go for our actual production and take it all. This would spell the end of this country as we know it. With loans, the greedy fat-cats have managed to find an easy source of cash and the country has managed to balance its books. It has been, if one can call it that, a win-win situation.

Every single country on Earth borrows money.

Kenya is the 17th poorest country in the world. In other words there are very few needier places than Kenya.

17th poorest country in the world, and our mps are earning as much as those in the richest countries in the world??? Nowadays our leaders (or misleaders) are talking everything in billions not millions any more, soon we will be hearing trillions for this and that small project and that is the time kenyans will start to live like our brothers in Zimbabwe. kshs 10,000 for a loaf of bread

Which is a sad situation, considering that some of the richest individuals in Africa are from Kenya.

Yes, except they are not on the Forbes list of richest people - because their wealth is stolen and also mostly hidden

Who told you we are operating without loans,No country including the US survive without loans,"Mwanaume ni Madeni"

Something smells fishy. Somebody may be looking for a way to get a local foothold by bypassing the central government. Only time will tell.

thats the aim of devolution. no more "centralisation"- literally.

I don't care

Congrats World Bank for supporting devolution, ADB and IMF should follow suit.