Senate allocates Sh48bn to county governments

The Senate has allocated Sh48 billion more to the county governments above the Sh210 billion that the National Treasury had earmarked for the devolved units.

The senators approved the increase when they amended the Division of Revenue Bill, thus raising the shareable revenue among counties from Sh190 billion to Sh238 billion.

The approval was unanimous.

They held that the conditional grants should be Sh20 billion.

“It is our feeling that there’s no way that 190 billion can sustain the counties,” said Billow Kerrow, the chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs.

The decision comes just two days after the senators met the Cabinet Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Rotich, and within hours after senators met some governors, plus the officers from the Parliamentary Budget Office to get their views on the provisions of the Bill.

With the new allocations, the county governments will get almost three times the minimum amount due to them as prescribed in the Constitution. The Constitution prescribes a minimum of 15 per cent of revenues be given to the counties. The new allocation shows the percentage at 42.9 per cent.

“National government will not be deprived of resources, because they are likely to raise more resources in the next financial year,” said Kipchumba Murkomen, the chairman of Devolved Government Committee.

The Senate also amended the Bill to ensure that where the county governments are unable to have the money, then, they will get the help of the national government to do the job.

“Where the allocation of monies to a county results in a county being allocated an amount that is less than the amount commensurate to the cost of functions devolved to the county, the national government shall provide to such county  an allocation amounting to the difference between the cost of the functions devolved to the county and the allocated amount,” read the new provision approved in the Bill.

The way the senators amended the Bill leave the National Treasury with no room to negotiate the disbursement of money to the county governments. If enacted the way it is, Mr Rotich –who has already said that the Treasury has reached the borrowing limits—will have to find a way to generate the extra money.

At the same time, senators queried the relevance of a Cabinet Secretary in charge of devolution, but Mr Murkomen said the new cabinet secretary will not issue orders to the governors or to the county governments.

"If she dared to interfere with the work of the governors and county governments, she will be violating the provisions of the Constitution that the two levels of government are distinct and interdependent.  If any governor takes orders from the Cabinet Secretary, he will be acting illegally,” said Mr Murkomen.

Mr Murkomen said so to quell fears among senators that the new ministry was meant to frustrate the devolution of power and resources from the national government to county governments.

“You can’t say that when you name a ministry as the ministry of devolution, you are interfering with the counties, no, that is not true. Devolution is not a confine of any level of government”.

Dr Boni Khalwale (Kakamega) raised the issue in the Senate saying the domain of devolution was with the counties, and the national government had no role in the devolved governments.

The Leader of Minority Party in the Senate, Moses Wetang’ula (Bungoma), also weighed in saying the Jubilee government was reluctant to implement devolution and that’s why it had created “a ministry at the centre to keep on interfering with the functions of the county governments”.

"I find it an amorphous ministry. It has no role in the name that it has adopted,” said Wilfred Machage, the Kuria Senator.

Mr Murkomen said devolution as per the Constitution was the role of the counties and also the role of the national government.

“The national government and the county governments must respond to devolution in the manner in which they operate…The idea is to take services closer to the people,” said Mr Murkomen.