Kenyan President William Ruto opened the 9th Devolution Conference in Homa Bay by signing two pieces of legislation intended to strengthen county finances: the County Allocation of Revenue Act 2025 and the County Public Finance Laws (Amendment) Act 2023. The new revenue law divides Ksh415 billion among the country’s 47 counties for the 2025/26 fiscal year, a 7.1 percent increase on the previous allocation, while the finance law creates dedicated funds to give county assemblies greater autonomy over their budgets. Addressing delegates, Ruto said his administration had cleared all arrears owed to counties in the last financial year and pledged to complete the transfer of all outstanding devolved functions, formalised in December 2024. He added that the government had gazetted the hand-over of 50,000 parcels of land and 80,000 buildings to county ownership and put total transfers to county governments at Sh4 trillion since devolution began 12 years ago. The five-day conference, held under the banner of “inclusion and equity”, brings together governors, senators, diplomats and development partners to review devolution’s progress and chart priorities for the next decade. Speakers including Governors Gladys Wanga and Ahmed Abdullahi and German Ambassador Sebastian Groth said the model has improved service delivery but called for better use of resources and stronger local accountability.