Decentralisation in Kenya and lessons learned from German Federalism

01/08/2026 to 31/10/2026

Kenya adopted a devolved form of governance in 2010 with the enactment of a new constitution. Devolution was implemented in the year 2013 after elections were carried out to operationalize the devolved units referred to as counties. The multi-level government structure entails fiscal, political and administrative devolution with clear autonomy from the national government. Arguably, this is a form of federalism and similar to German Federalism, although on a smaller scale. By studying the German experience the project aims to identify best practices for implementing multi-level government to tackle the historical problem of poverty and inequitable development in Kenya.