Nyeri MCAs, county government unlock impasse on budget

Nyeri County ward representatives have softened their position on the budget stalemate after the executive agreed to implement projects they had demanded.

Majority Leader Duncuan Gituanja on Wednesday morning said that by the end of week, both parties will have succeeded in unlocking the impasse and allow access of funds.

“The devolvement projects that were to be implemented were the bone of contention but we have cleared with the roads projects,” he said.

Mr Gituanja, who is also the chairman of the Budget and Appropriation Committee, said that the recurrent budget would not be affected by the amendments insisting that only the projects to be implemented in the current financial year were amended.

“The members had serious issues with the projects the executive had planned to implement. We felt cheated [on] what is the purpose of an MCA if they cannot fight for what is best for the people they represent,” he said.

The Kabaru MCA refuted claims that they had increased money allocated for travel which they had slashed during the budget review.

“We have not increased any funds that we identified as unnecessary expenditure. The only amendment we have done is on development projects and we will table them in the assembly,” he noted.

PROJECTS COMBINED

Roads and Infrastructure Executive Robert Thuo confirmed that his department had combined the projects they had allocated funds in the budget with those the ward reps had proposed.

“There was a bit of confusion arising from the different names given to the same road but we sat with the MCAs and harmonised the roads construction programme. We do not foresee any disagreements,” he said.

A meeting which was to be held Tuesday between the Finance Executive Charles Githinji and the ward reps was postponed to Wednesday.

“The executive wrote to us indicating that he would be appearing in the Senate on behalf of the governor to respond to some queries,” said Mr Gituanja.

The county has been operating on half budget for the last four months after Governor Nderitu Gachagua refused to assent to the Sh6.4 billion budget citing gross violation of the constitution by MCAs.

He accused the ward reps of amending the budget by more than the one per cent threshold provided for by the Public Finance Management Act.