HISTORICAL INJUSTICES A Complementary Indicator for distributing the Equalization Fund

HISTORICAL INJUSTICES A Complementary Indicator For Distributing The Equalization Fund

Publisher	Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA)
Year of Publication
Category	Papers and Articles
County	All/General
Description	The need for a policy paper on historical injustices arose out of the necessity to find an alternative or complementary criterion for distributing the Equalization Fund (hereafter the Fund). While recognizing the importance of this Fund, quantitative methodologies, which have included inter alia land poor, income poor, female headed households, remoteness, youth economic deprivation, poor health infrastructure, low levels of school enrolment, few schools, absence of tarmacked roads, high mortality rates, poor performance in national examinations, limited income/livelihood opportunities and income distribution, poor access to information, poor access to financial services, low capacity for collective action, have so far informed the discussions on how the Fund can be distributed. These determinants have their shortcomings, as they are largely deductive in nature and do not fundamentally capture the sense of suffering experienced by those who endured historical injustices. The promulgation of the New Constitution ushered in an era of hope, as it provided Kenyan citizens with a legal foundation to participate in governance through a devolved system of governance. One of the progressive elements of this constitution is the recognition of marginalised and minority groups and the specific provision of an Equalization Fund to bridging the inequities and inequalities they characteristic their marginalisation. A qualitative analysis of the historical injustices will go a long way to augment and/or complement the economic indices of poverty and marginalization of these groups and/or areas and are equally important in determining the sharing of this Fund. It may equally serve as a separate criterion for determining which county or which minority group deserves to benefit from the Fund. It is against this backdrop that the Commission on Revenue Allocation seeks to have the other side of the story told so that a close to complete picture of the status of marginalised groups and their experiences with historical injustices could be documented, with a view of informing the decision-making process vis-à-vis the distribution of the Equalization Fund. Source: Commission on Revenue Allocation, www.crakenya.org
Tags	Public Finance
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