As Homa Bay hosts the 2025 Devolution Conference, the irony is glaring, one of the counties topping the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s shame list for bribe payments at 5.32 percent of the national total is also hosting Kenya’s flagship governance forum.
The National Ethics and Corruption Survey 2024 paints a grim picture, bribery cases have surged from 25.7 to 30.5 percent in just one year. The average bribe now stands at Ksh 4,878 and securing a county job can cost a desperate applicant up to Ksh 243,651. Uasin Gishu, Baringo, Embu, Homa Bay and Bomet lead in bribe shares, while ghost workers drain over Ksh15.8 billion annually from county coffers.
This is not the devolution Kenyans voted for in 2010. Over Sh1 trillion has been pumped into counties since 2013, yet most have failed the legal 30 percent development spending threshold, preferring bloated payrolls and political patronage over real service delivery. Over eleven counties are under EACC investigation, with procurement fraud and nepotism still entrenched.
If the 2025 conference theme for the people, for prosperity is to mean anything, leaders must commit to more than rhetoric. Counties need full digitization of revenue and payroll systems, open-data portals, lifestyle audits and secure whistleblower channels. The Controller of Budget and Auditor-General must be fully funded and shielded from political interference.
Devolution can still deliver equity, inclusion and justice but only if integrity stops being optional. Kenya cannot afford another decade where corruption remains the biggest beneficiary of devolution.
Dennis Wendo
Integrated Development Network – Public Benefits Organization (PBO)
Email: idn.kenya@gmail.com
