|
By Ronald Njoroge NAIROBI, (Xinhua) --
Kenya on Wednesday launched the Integrated Devolution
Data Portal to improve governance for county governments.
The portal is an interactive platform for information sharing
between county governments, constitutional implementation bodies,
the public and other stakeholders providing a unified space for
users to easily identify, retrieve and use devolution information.
Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of ICT Joseph Mucheru told a media
briefing in Nairobi that that the pioneering devolution web data
portal will provide a one-stop access to devolution data from
multiple sources.
“The information contained in the portal including national and
county plans, county revenue legislation, budgets, revenues,
expenditures and service delivery will be a useful resource that
will inform policy formulation and decision-making,” Mucheru said.
Devolution in Kenya still faces challenges including overdependence
on the national government for finances, unstructured mechanism to
sustain investment attraction to counties, inconsistent county
regulatory frameworks and lack of a national framework to guide
counties in policy and legislations affecting business.
Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KRA) Head of Operation, Dalmas
Okendo noted that the portal is a vital tool to enrich counties and
enhance investment opportunities. The portal will help keep track
record of fast moving counties.
“The portal that we are launching today will encourage counties to
explore their natural advantages to attract investment. Our 10-point
policy agenda, which is a guide map for political leaders to
centralize industrialization in their economic agenda, points out
the creation of an enabling business environment as the number one
priority that will guarantee job creation and economic growth. The
portal will play a key role in doing this for county governments,”
added Okendo.
Phase one of the data portal will contain data for five counties and
the plan is to include all 47 counties in the next 18 months.
The portal will also provide access to various data sets from which
raw data can be extracted, processed, analyzed and presented in a
manner that easily highlights trends and patterns that are equally
useful for decision-making. |
