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MPS,Thu, Sep 16, 2010
Prime Minister Raila Odinga seems to have put to rest the debate on the provincial administration by insisting that they will be retained under the new constitution.
Odinga on Thursday said the officers who include provincial commissioners, district commissioners, chiefs and their assistants were going nowhere but were likely to assume new roles in the devolved governance structures.
The Premier told a series of roadside meetings during his two-day tour of development projects in Siaya county that the Provincial Administration would be restructured to conform to the emerging demands of the new political dispensation.
"Let me assure you that we will not lay off the chiefs, District Officers and Commissioners but will give them new duties and responsibilities that are in tandem with the county system," he said.
Odinga who presided over the ground breaking ceremony of the Ndori - Ngiya and the Bondo-Misori roads censured a section of political leaders in the country for misleading the public on the future role of the provincial administrators.
A raging debate has emerged over the fate of the once powerful provincial administration with some leaders insisting that they had to pack up and go while others maintain that the department will be restructured to absorb the officers.
Odinga cautioned the leaders to spare their opinions for debate on related legislations when the cabinet submits relevant bills on the floor of the house arguing that their persistent differences were sending mixed signals to the citizens.
The premier said the County Government Act would outline the linkages and the interrelations between the central and the county governments and expressed fears that the divergence in the interpretation of the new duties the administrators in the county units impacted negatively on government efforts to implement the new constitution.
"Kenyans should rest assured that there is no dispute over the implementation of the new laws but a misunderstanding among politicians with divergent interpretation of the law under the new political dispensation," he said.
