House acts to end row over Sh7bn for counties

Parliament will, for the second consecutive year, have to set up a mediation committee to come up with a compromise on the money to be allocated to counties after the National Assembly rejected the Senate’s proposed changes to the division of revenue.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has directed the Majority and Minority Leaders to select members of the mediation committee required by the Constitution in case of a deadlock between the two Houses.

The Senate had proposed an increase of Sh7.7 billion on the Sh283 billion approved by the National Assembly but MPs would hear none of that.

The Senate had also proposed an additional Sh1.5 billion to county public hospitals, but the method used to suggest the increase was not clear.

Now, the committee will have 30 days to come up with a way which is agreeable to both Houses.

Mr Muturi directed the Majority and Minority leaders in the two Houses to come up with the list by Thursday morning.

He will then communicate to his Senate counterpart Mr Ekwee Ethuro, informing him that the Senate amendments had been rejected, and the need for mediation.

Mr Muturi said the rejection of the amendments should not signal turf wars and attempts to fight devolution, saying the interests of the country should come first.

Despite the fact that disagreements over the Bill would cripple counties financially, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary was in a position to present budget estimates to fund government spending, the Parliamentary Service Commission and the Judiciary.

Earlier, the chairman of the National Assembly Budget Committee, Mr Mutava Musyimi, said the Senate decision to increase the allocation to counties seems to contradict its own passage of the Budget Policy Statement, the basis for the Division of Revenue Bill.

“Apart from not explaining where the extra funds will come from, the Senators appear to have gone against their own decision and the resolution of the House,” the Mbeere South MP said.

Mr Musyimi criticised the Senate for proposing a Sh4.4 billion emergency fund for the counties, and yet they were allowed by law to spend two per cent of their budgets on emergency

programmes.

Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa said the Senate should explain the purpose for the Sh4.4 billion planned for emergencies, saying senators should come clean whether they wanted the money sent back to them, once it had been passed.

Leader of Majority Aden Duale said: “Allowing the increased allocation as suggested by the Senate, means starving other arms of government of funding, as well as increasing taxes and domestic borrowing to meet the shortfall.”

He also criticized the proposal to take way Sh1.7 billion of equitable share from the national government to the counties, saying the senators had not indicated how the latter was meant to plug the funding gap.

The Mbeere South MP also called for wide consultations among stakeholders.