DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i11.018

Pages: 1671-1680

The main aim of this study was to analyze influence of devolved financial disbursement and use on poverty alleviation in the county governments in Kenya. The dependent variable was poverty alleviation whereas the independent variables were disbursed and devolved fund, local revenue, recurrent budget and capital budget. The study adopted quantitative descriptive design, examining secondary data of devolved funds disbursed to county government in 2013/2014 to 2016/2017 financial year from the Kenya Economic Survey (2013/2014 – 2016/2017). The study also collected data on county government capital and recurrent expenditure covering 2013/2014 to 2016/2017. The study collected secondary data from Kenya Economic Survey to capture poverty rate in every county for the year 2016 when devolution was expected to have gained momentum to show changes in poverty rates by every county. Multiple regression analysis was applied to analyze the relationship between a single dependent variable and each of the independent variables respectively. The study found out that apart from recurrent budget which had relationship with poverty alleviation, disbursed fund, local revenue and capital budget did not have any relationship with poverty alleviation. The county governments did not statistically relate the disbursed fund and its use to poverty alleviation which is the main mandate of the county government by providing services geared towards reducing the rate of poverty in their respective counties.