Anne Waiguru Wins Second Term As Council of Governors Chair

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has been elected to serve as the chairperson of the Council of Governors (CoG) for a second term.

Waiguru was elected on Monday, October 2 on a general consensus during the elections for the Executive and Technical Committee held in Nairobi.

After clinching her second term, she revealed that she would prioritize full devolution of functions and resources as well as increasing revenue allocation to counties.

Council of Governors meeting where they elected Executive and Technical Committee Chairs in Nairobi on October 2, 2023. /COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS

Waiguru, who is serving her second term as Kirinyaga Governor, further committed to coming up with ways to support counties in improving their own source of revenue.

Other areas the governor has promised to concentrate on include successful universal healthcare rollout, agriculture value chain development, and value addition and trade. 

Waiguru was first elected CoG chairperson on September 17, 2022, holding off intense competition from her Kajiado County counterpart, Joseph Ole Lenku to win in a secret ballot, having vied under Kenya Kwanza led by President William Ruto.

The second-term governor garnered a majority vote to be declared the CoG boss taking over from the former Embu governor Martin Wambora.

The CoG chairperson is considered a national face of the 47 governors who are tasked with the mandate of implementing devolved functions. The chairperson is also the link between the national and county governments.

Waiguru will now continue to chair the Intergovernmental Budget Executive Council headed by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. 

Other than representing the other 46 governors, she will also oversee a mechanism for consultation amongst County Governments and facilitating capacity building for Governors.

Waiguru was previously the Devolution Cabinet Secretary (CS) before she was elected Kirinyaga Governor for the first term. She was also a CoG vice chairperson.

Prior to her tenure, previous CoG chairpersons in Kenya's history were Bomet's Isaac Ruto (2013-2015), Meru's Peter Munya (2015-2017), Turkana's Josphat Nanok (2017-2019), Kakamega's Wycliffe Oparanya (2019-2021) and Embu's Martin Wambora (2021-2022).

Since winning her first term, she has been at loggerheads with the National Government and the Senate regarding devolved funds advanced to the counties.

On Monday, April 24, she gave the National Treasury 14 days to release the pending funds owed to county governments without delay for the months of February, March and April or else the governors would shut down counties.

The governors noted that the Treasury was yet to disburse a total of Ksh94.35 billion in an unprecedented four-month delay that also went against the meeting President Ruto held with the county bosses in Naivasha, an amount broken down into Ksh31.45 billion for February, Ksh29.6 billion for March and Ksh22.2 billion for April.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS), Njuguna Ndung'u on the same day moved to avert the shutdown by revealing that the funds would help in devolution, blaming the delay in disbursing the funds on low revenue collection and high public debt obligations.