The national and county governments, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC), are currently undergoing a validation exercise on government functions. The three-week exercise that began last week will see functions prescribed to both levels of government under the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution, either further unbundled or transferred, as a part of the larger scheme to entrench and clarify devolution.

Whilst the process is still ongoing, indicators from the IGRTC chairman, Mr Kithinji Kiragu, are that the exercise promises success and has already seen the two levels arrive at a consensus on the handling of several functions including education and trade. Trade, the gist of this feature, is a shared function between the two levels of government.

Current structure

Currently, the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution gives the national government authority over international trade and grants county governments the trade development and regulatory role. Despite the national and county governments working collaboratively in handling this function, there has been a pressing concern regarding overlapping roles.

For businesses, this is counterproductive and has made both the ease and cost of doing business somewhat untenable. For instance, counties with border towns have had challenges with how to handle the movement of goods across the border in the absence of clear structures. This has led to both levels of government imposing charges on traders, causing an uproar among them and resulting in a loss of revenue.

New proposals

The government still holds approximately 19 elements of the trade and industry function. Budgetary estimates from the National Treasury indicate that these elements come with a budget of about Kshs. 4.6 billion.

As a result, further unbundling of this function will involve county governments extensively in trade licensing, the development and implementation of county trade policies, trade regulation and development, the provision of business development services, and the organisation of trade exhibitions or fairs.

Further, county governments will continue to build, control, and manage markets through stall allocation, issuance of licenses, development of aggregate centres and allocation for market sites. Similarly, value addition, as well as market surveillance with a target for counterfeit and substandard product elements, have also been apportioned to counties.

Navigating policy shifts

As the saying goes, change is inevitable and constant. Simply put, a shift in policy is something businesses must constantly anticipate and watch out for.  From the very onset, it is imperative to reiterate that the resolutions have not been finalised, and the validation process will potentially clarify things further.

However, with the indication from Mr Kiragu, businesses may need to recalibrate how they handle some of their functions, more so licensing and compliance. Moreover, it is also probable that governance structures are likely to change, meaning that new stakeholders are likely to come into play, hence the need to forge and build new relationships.

Further, entities need to design ways of ensuring their teams are appropriately and adequately appraised on policy changes. By ensuring the relevant teams and staff members are informed, adaptation to policy changes would be seamless.

In conclusion, today’s business world is highly dynamic. Changes in policy are bound to happen and as such, entities must have in place change management strategies. Ordinarily, to properly navigate changes in policy, entities need to be open to building and forging new stakeholder relationships, investing in staff development and embracing nimbleness.