Bottom Up Approach to Regional Planning at the County Level in Kenya
Kenya is located in the African continent and therefore subscribes to African Union polices
covered under Agenda 2063. This agenda is a strategic framework for the socio-economic
transformation of the continent with a vision for an Integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa,
driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. This agenda
articulates seven African Aspirations derived through consultative process with the African
Citizenry. They include 1. a prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable
development, 2.an integrated continent that is politically united based on the ideals of Pan
Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance, 3.an Africa of good governance, democracy,
respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law, 4. A peaceful and Secure Africa, 5. Africa
with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics 6 An Africa whose
development is people driven, relying on the potential offered by people, especially its women and
youth and caring for children. 7 An Africa as a strong, united, resilient and influential global player
and partner.
Agenda 2063 is different from past continental initiatives on the following fronts.
One is it’s bottom-up approach. This is based on the method that this document was developed
where extensive consultations of the African Citizenry was carried out. It was not the work of
bureaucrats, but rather an agenda driven by the voices of the African people indicating the Africa
they want.
Two is Result Orientation. Goals, targets and strategies have been set in each aspirational area for
the national, regional and continental stakeholders or levels. The target will form the basis for
holding stakeholders accountable for performance.
Three is monitoring and Evaluation or accountability. There is a monitoring and evaluation
component to ensure that planned activities, outputs, outcomes are on track for attainment with
mid term reviews providing the basis for program re-alignment. Accountability roles will be
assigned and the outcomes of the monitoring and evaluation process will be used to manage the
accountability relationship
Four Policy Coherence or space. For the first time all continental and regional initiatives have been
brought under one umbrella. The integration is expected to enhance consistency, remove policy
over laps and redundancies and create space for the management of diversity and uniqueness in
the AU
Five financing partnership. Resource mobilization strategy developed has identified key areas of
intervention and their associated funding options. Next steps will be taken to operationalize the
financing strategies. Strategies for expanding maximizing partnerships for Agenda 2063
implementation have been developed and would be implemented.
Six Communication strategy. While past frameworks were known only to bureaucrats, agenda
2063 is to be driven by the people. A communication strategy has been developed for
implementation.
Seven Capacity. A key success factor for the successful implementation of Agenda 2063 is the
capacity of individuals and instructions to play their roles in the domestication of the Agenda. A
Capacity Assessment Study is being undertaken to address the capacity needs of continental and
regional institutions. This will later be extended to member states
Retrieved from https://au.int/agenda2063/about on 3, April 2019. Websit.
Continental Free trade Areas CFTA aspires to liberalize trade between African countries across
the continent and to build on consideratble successes already achieved within Aarica’s regional
economic communities
An ambitious initiative for the world’a second-largest continent CFTA comprises the 55 member
states of the AU and 8 AU-recognized Regional Economic Communities with varying trade
liberalization legal framework. The REC are East African Community, Arab Maghreb Union
AMU, Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, Intergovernmental Authority on
Development IGAD, Southern African Development Community SADC, Common Market for
Eastern and Southern African COMESA, Economic Community of Central African States
ECCAS, and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States CEN-SAD.
Kenya is found within the East African Community but is also a member of other Regional
Economic Communities such as COMESA, IGAD and CEN-SAD. This means that regional
policies and goals need to align to all the Regional Economic Communities Kenya is party to in
order to achieve the aspirations of Agenda 2063.
National Level
At the National level, Kenya also has a National Policy called vision 2030 which aims to transform
Kenya into a middle income nation by 2030. Vision 2030 is further broken down into five years’
medium term plans starting making it now to be at the third medium term plan of 2018-2022.
Within the same vision 2030 plan are various sectoral plans produced after every five years. In the
end what you have is several plans within the same sector. For example, in the case of tourism
development which is considered one of the key sectors under the economic pillar of vision 2030,
it has to align its plans to the medium term plans and the sectoral plans. It is important to remember
that Kenya had its first Tourism Act in 2011 which also prescribes five-year Master Plans for
tourism development. This is not a bad thing at all given the concerted effort to support tourism
sector which was neglected for a very long time. What is paramount considering the existence of
all these plans is the they must find a way to achieve the same objectives and ensure that
duplication of activities is avoided.
Regional Level
Kenya is again sub-divided into 47 autonomous counties which are headed by the Governors. They
have their own county assemblies where elected County Representatives meet to discuss the
county budget and to pass by-laws. These counties have their own master plans and policy
initiatives mostly spearheaded by the governors during their electioneering period.
Bottom up approach to planning at the County Level
Bottom up is one of the approaches to planning that allows the local community and local players
to express their views and to help define the development course for their area in line with their
own views, expectations and plans. As the name suggests, it literally refers to planning that
incorporates opinions of people who are at the local level concerning their needs and priorities
relating to development and then escalating it up reach officials who give approval for
implementation. It is the bridge between the grass and the tall towers in which government officials
sit in. It is due to this principle of subsidiarity that bottom up approach is enshrined in the Kenya
constitution of 2010. The belief is that with it advent of devolution, it is only through bottom up
approach to planning that the aspirations of the local communities would be clearly captured at
both the county and national government levels.
However, it is important to appreciate the fact that bottom up approach cannot be applied
systematically to all places in all circumstances. For instance, most regions in Kenya which need
development are the rural and marginalized regions where illiteracy levels are also quite high.
Most of the communities in these regions such as Turukana are also nomadic pastoralists which
means that getting them to participate in decision making is almost impossible. In cases where
they are available it is also difficult for them to making meaningful contribution to technical
aspects such as the oil exploration that is being carried out in their regions.
A part from that, middle class which comprises the learned in Kenya to together with members
from academia have also been accused of exhibiting disinterest when it comes to public
participation process. The county government officials have from time to time lamented that every
time they invite the public to attend various sittings intended to give their views it is very few
people who turn up. As a result, the county assembly is forced to make decisions on behalf of the
public without factoring in the most important issues to be addressed at the grassroots level.
Although there is another school of thought for the public which holds the view that politicians are
never to be trusted and that most projects they initiate for their own shellfish interest as opposed
to public interest. Therefore, attending those public meetings is a waste of time given that they will
rarely implement the views that the public offer. This means that for bottom up approach to work
well, the policy makers must seek to capture very clearly the opinions of the locals and to
implement them guided by technical revisions. It is only through this that public will begin to take
These consultative sessions seriously. Otherwise it will be same old trend of paying lip service to
local development only to appear during electioneering period requesting re-election in order to
complete the projects with nothing to show for it.
Bottom Up planning at the County Level
Revenue sharing
Sources of revenue
Population and size
Neighboring counties doing well
Disinterest