How resources are shared can be a source of friction between Kenya’s central government and its 47 new counties. Established by the 2010 constitution, the counties came into operation in 2013.
Their governments often want a larger share of the resources in their territories. Paul Chepkwony, the governor of the tea-rich county of Kericho, recently demanded a bigger slice of revenues from tea exports.
He based his demand on developments in another county. The discovery of oil in the northern Turkana county led to sometimes very public fallouts between governor Josphat Nanok and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Whereas Turkana county gets 30% of the revenue from petroleum, the government gets billions of dollars from our tea but we receive nothing,” Chepkwony was reported as saying in September 2018.
Tea is grown in at least 19 counties and was Kenya’s leading export in 2017, so the governor’s demand is likely to be closely watched. We examined his claim.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.