Public Participation and its Influence on Devolution in Machakos County: 2013-2019

Kenya has suffered for many years from poor governance and leadership, poor decision making, bad policies and marginalization since her attainment of independence from Britain in December 12, 1963. Current devolution started under new constitution of 2010 in March 2013 immediately after the country's general election. Under the constitution of Kenya, 2010, public participation is critical and promotes democracy through creation of an opportunity for the public to participate in decision-making processes in what affects them, both at national government and county governments levels. This study analyzed best public participation practices from the Federal German's Lander that are applicable in democratizing public participation. The same is looked at within devolved units of governance in Kenya to improve Machakos County for shared prosperity. The Kenya's 2010 constitution promotes more accountability, transparency, public participation and involvement of citizens in contributing to decision making and more openness on how public affairs are run and organized. Almost ten years now after devolved units came to be, they still face serious challenges such as massive corruption, political competition and wrangling, failure to effectively engage and involve county residents, poor decision-making processes, lack of public participation, incompetent political leaders, and failure to use modern information and communication technologies to improve service delivery. Through this dissertation. I engaged residents and various leaders of Machakos County to understand how they are involved and participated in the county development affairs, decision making, how best it can be improved, then I keenly analyzed federal German's Lander model of decentralization to come up with best practices that can be applied to strengthen devolution in Machakos County for shared prosperity.