An analysis of the effeect of government financial disbursement on the service delivery of Municipal Councils in Kenya;a case of Municipal Councils in Rift Valley Province, Kenya.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Local authorities are the main service delivery channels that the Central Government uses to channel the resources obtained from taxpayers back to benefit the citizens by offering different types of the required services. In order to achieve this noble objective, the Central Government has mandated local authorities to levy taxes within their area of jurisdiction to meet their budget demand. To improve the level of funds available for these purposes, the Central Govemment has introduced the sharing of the funds collected by it in the form of taxes to local authorities by way of Local Authority Transfer funds (LATF) and the Road Maintenance Levy Funds (RMLF). To assist local authorities collect licenses, the Central Government has standardized the licensing procedure by issuing guidelines on application of Single Business Permit (SBP) by the local authorities. The main purpose of the study is to find out the effect of government financial disbursement on the service delivery in the municipal councils compared to the period when such funds were not available at all. In order to achieve the purpose of the study the researcher has selected nvmnicipal councils as the population of the study. Due to the limitation of time and other resources, the research will be confined to eight municipal councils within the administrative boundary of the Rifl Valley Province. These include: -Nakuru, Eldoret, Kericho, Kitale, Kabarnet, Nyahururu, Nanyuki, and Naivasha. The data for this study will be collected using structured questionnaire, which will be administered to 17 respondents in each of the eight selected municipalities. The data collected will be arranged in matrix of variables and will be analyzed using descriptive statistics to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings of the study can be adapted to other Municipal, Town and Country councils because the structure of local authorities is principally the same.