Raila rules out retention of Provincial Administration

By ALEX NDEGWA


The Provincial Administration will be scrapped, Prime Minister Raila Odinga told Parliament.


"When the Constitution states that the system of Provincial Administration will be restructured, even a tortured interpretation will not necessarily mean the system will be retained lock, stock, and barrel," Raila told MPs during Prime Minister's time, seeking to end the row on the future of the unit.


He added: "With the system of county governments, there will be no place for PCs because the province as a unit of government or as an administrative entity is not contemplated under the new Constitution."


But Raila said Government officers serving in the Provincial Administration would not lose their jobs. Instead, they would be redeployed.


"That is not to say PCs will lose their jobs or that no new administrative structures will be established," he said, in an assurance to the officials whose future became uncertain after the coalition partners differed on the meaning of restructuring.


Scrapped

The clearest indication yet that the Provincial Administration would be scrapped came in the PM’s response to a question by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale, who questioned recent actions by the Ministry of Internal Security.


To disapprove of the notion that abolishing the Provincial Administration would precipitate chaos, Raila traced the origin of the system, saying provincial administrators were introduced by the British colonial regime to perpetuate ‘indirect rule’ in colonies.


"Britain today has no PCs, DCs, DOs or chiefs. But more importantly, there is no chaos in Britain," Raila said yesterday.

The PM was emphatic the administrative framework for county governments established after the law on devolved government is passed will "succeed the system formerly known as the Provincial Administration".


"Consequently, present actions to redeploy officers within the Provincial Administration are interim, pending the enactment of the law on devolved government," he added.


The PM was alluding to actions by Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and senior ministry officials to implement a blueprint detailing the vision of the recast Provincial Administration.


Cluster of counties

　

It creates 23 new administrative regions, each made up of a cluster of counties, and outlines how the PCs, DCs, and DOs would be redeployed.


Saitoti has said most of the core functions of the Provincial Administration, particularly the co-ordination of Government business in the grassroots, are still vested on the national Government and would continue to be performed by the system of national administration that comes out of the restructuring of the Provincial Administration envisaged in the sixth schedule.