The rationale for local fiscal autonomy suggests that local expenditure and local revenue generation
should remain in close proximity. This is achieved through fiscal decentralisation to local
government, to ensure efficient provision of local services that align with local needs, and to improve
accountability to residents. Fiscal decentralisation has found resonance in developing countries
through local government reforms, but in Africa fiscal decentralisation has been focussed mainly on
revenue sharing, except in a few cases where some local fiscal autonomy has been achieved.
Urbanisation in Africa is likely to continue (UN-Habitat, 2008), necessitating an increase in
municipal service delivery which African cities must finance - hence the need for local fiscal
autonomy. Local fiscal autonomy is arguably contentious for African cities, partly because provision
of municipal services must be tempered with considerations of equity and redistribution to the poorer
urban populations, and because inadequate welfare nets from national government do not subsidise
the gap in municipal revenue. In the recent past, Kenya and South Africa adopted local government
reforms in different forms that has yielded different forms of local fiscal autonomy. The paper
conducts a comparative of local fiscal autonomy in municipal services provision in Nairobi and
Johannesburg.