APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA 81. Nowhere is the overwhelmingly positive public perception of post-2010 governance architecture more dramatically expressed as in the various entitlement and remediative provisions of the Constitution that address the pains of marginalization of women, people living with disability, the elderly, and youth. Related to this is the public appreciation of the fact that the post-2010 constitutional framework seeks to empower people to demand and extract performance from those who govern over them, especially at the local level where devolution has led to more programmes and projects of capacity-boosting proportions in education, economic empowerment, health, and demands for participation in planning and budget procedures. 82. On the other hand, public perception does recognize that much still requires to be done to further improve on the framework for constitutional democracy and the rule of law. The Constitution is premised on the sovereign power of the people and requires a critical public that engages constantly with those in government. However, local understanding of this basic principle remains undeveloped at best. After elections, according to feedback from the counties, the elected tend to literally disappear from their constituencies, and become strangers or at best visitors to their constituents. Success in achieving the targets for representation of women, the disabled, the elderly and youth appropriately in political, economic and social development are not uniform throughout the country, but the general impression is that rhetoric far outstrips concrete results. 83. Similarly, some counties are performing better than others, reflecting a whole series of factors such as historical experiences, resource endowments, and revenue profile in terms of allocations from the national government as well as internally generated revenue, leadership quality, level of institutionalization, and location. The level of public participation in county affairs also differs from county to county for similar reasons. | 78 |