Browsing by Author "Nyaoko, John Mose"

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    Fiscal Devolution And Technical Efficiency Of County Governments In Kenya
    (IOSR-JEF, 2026-01-07) Nyaoko, John Mose; Njaramba, Stephen Githae; Korir, Julius
    Several fiscal decentralization and revenue independence programmes have been instituted since independence in Kenya in order to attain technical efficiency in the delivery of public goods and services. Notably, the enactment of the Constitution 2010 ushered in fiscal devolution as the main driver of economic growth through technical efficiency in delivering public goods and services. Technical efficiency is to be attained through reduction in costs associated with allocations and rent-seeking activities as they focus on transparency and allocative efficiency. A smaller and productive government is believed to enhance technical efficiency by reducing wastage of expenditure and raising income growth. However, being responsible for a larger fiscal capacity can offer both challenges and opportunities for local governments in developing countries. As the devolved funds increase to the counties in Kenya, it is expected that technical efficiency would also increase in the county public service provision as more inputs would be available in relatively small size government. Despite the fact that the allocations to counties have been increasing and increased independence through tax assignments, there seems to be no evidence of improved technical efficiency as there has been no significant improvement in provision of goods and services for devolved functions including health and agriculture. There has also been a decline in the county growth domestic product over the years. Additionally, revenue collections at the counties have remained low and declining, despite higher targets that are set by the county governments. The main objective of the study was to measure the technical efficiencies in the counties. Specifically, the study estimated technical efficiency index for the 47 county governments. The model used in the analysis was a Cobb Douglas Stochastic Frontier Analysis to compute the mean technical efficiency. The average technical efficiency across counties is 84 percent, implying an average of 16 percent technical inefficiency. Technical efficiency varies significantly across counties operating between 50 and 90 percent technical efficiency. Based on these findings, the study recommends that counties should optimize resource utilization to close the 16 percent efficiency gap.