ADMINISTRATIVE RELATIONS, RESOURCE MOBILIZATION, AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN KENYAN COUNTIES

The constitution of Kenya 2010 sets a point of departure in intergovernmental relations. It brings about the national government and counties, thus a two-level government system in Kenya. Articles 6(2) and 189 emphasize that the two levels of government must consult, cooperate, and coordinate instead of competing under a cooperative form of devolution. However, lack of consultation, minimal cooperation, and inadequate coordination results in competition and supremacy battles on resource allocation and utilization. This jeopardizes a cooperative modus operandi of devolution. This paper evaluates Kenyan counties' administrative relations, resource mobilization, and service delivery. It is underpinned by the Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT) by Zald & McCarthy (1977). A cross-sectional design is used since it relies on questionnaires, structured interviews, and observations to gather data. A survey research strategy is applied, and a mixed method that integrates qualitative and quantitative data components is used at both the data collection and analysis stages. Data is collected from multiple groups of respondents: the national and county governments, the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, and the general public. A sample of 400 is used to gather quantitative data using questionnaires, while qualitative data is collected via structured interviews from a sample of 16 key informants. The quantitative and qualitative data are analyzed using SPSS and deductive thematic analysis, respectively.