Kenyan MPs Scrutinise Bill to Dissolve Six Regional Development Authorities

Kenya’s National Assembly Departmental Committee on Regional Development met on 13 August 2026 to scrutinise the Regional Development Authorities Laws (Repeal) Bill, 2026, which would dissolve six state corporations and transfer their rights, assets and liabilities to the National Treasury. Committee chairman Peter Lochakapong presided over the session, according to Dawan Africa.

Which authorities would close

The bill targets the Kerio Valley Development Authority, the Lake Basin Development Authority, the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, the Ewaso Ng’iro South River Basin Development Authority, the Ewaso Ng’iro North River Basin Development Authority and the Coast Development Authority. The government argues the bodies, set up before Kenya’s 2010 constitution created its devolved county system, now duplicate functions that counties are meant to perform, and that closing them would rationalise state corporations and ease pressure on the national budget.

Staff and asset concerns

Stakeholders who appeared before the committee pressed for protections for employees, with the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority reporting KSh176.9 million in unpaid salaries and statutory deductions for the first half of 2026, and the Ewaso Ng’iro North authority citing 246 employees with dependants who could be affected, according to Dawan Africa. Proposed protections include voluntary exit packages and skills-mapping to redeploy staff to successor institutions. The State Department overseeing the sector also pushed back on transferring all assets to the Treasury, arguing that specialised infrastructure such as dams and irrigation schemes should instead pass to relevant successor institutions. Lochakapong also raised concerns that the body proposed to manage the transition does not include representation from the Council of Governors, which represents county leaders.

Why It Matters

Rationalising overlapping state institutions is a recurring theme in Kenya’s devolution debate, and how this transition is managed will affect thousands of livelihoods as well as the future of dams, irrigation schemes and other regional infrastructure. Getting the transfer of staff and assets right is as consequential for public administration as the decision to dissolve the authorities in the first place.