STRATEGIC RESOURCE MOBILIZATION FOR SUSTAINABLE LOCAL REVENUE GROWTH: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR LAMU COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA
STRATEGIC RESOURCE MOBILIZATION FOR SUSTAINABLE LOCAL REVENUE GROWTH: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR LAMU COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA
Bernard Mulingulu Kimondio - Records Management Officer, Lamu County Government, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Local governments around the globe are increasingly under pressure to respond to an ever-expanding set of public service, infrastructure and economic transformation needs with limited public resources, and an uncertain economy. In many decentralized governance systems, it is expected that sub-national governments should increase their internal revenues, to diminish reliance on transfers from the national government and to enhance fiscal sustainability. The fiscal capacity of local governments to mobilize sustainable own-source revenue to support services delivery and long-term development priorities is one of the key elements to effective decentralization, according to the World Bank (2022). Devotion in Kenya has created a more complex administrative and financial system of county government since the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. Counties would be expected to fund such vital areas as health, agriculture, local infrastructure, trade development, fisheries and county transport system. But as per the reports released by Office of the Controller of Budget (2024), many County governments are still facing chronic revenue deficits, poor collection mechanisms and increasing reliance on the equitable share disbursements from the National government. County governments raised about KSh 58.9 billion in own-source revenue during 2023/2024; while this was a positive improvement on the figures raised in the previous year, there were still some counties that fell short of the revenue targets. Lamu County is a unique opportunity in the devolved governance system of Kenya because of its strategic economic assets, which include the Lamu Port, the Lamu Old Town, fisheries resources, tourism potential, maritime trade opportunities and investments related to the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor project. Nevertheless, the county still has structural and institutional constraints that hinder the county's ability to sustain revenue growth, such as underutilization of economic sectors, underdeveloped digitization of revenue systems, low compliance rates, and low investment mobilization. This article looks at the strategic resource mobilization opportunities of Lamu County and suggests an integrated framework for enhancing the sustainable growth of local resources through revenue generation. The article draws on public finance literature, county fiscal reports and policy documents, and other comparative experiences from other jurisdictions to suggest that conventional taxation approaches are insufficient for sustainable revenue growth. Rather, counties need to pursue integrated strategies focused on digital revenue administration, investment promotion, economic diversification, governance reforms, public-private partnerships, and institutional efficiency for fiscal resilience and to unlock long-term economic potential.
