Church warns over Senate-Governors row - VIDEO
The Church has warned that devolution is at risk of being derailed by the constant bickering between Governors and Senators.
The church also criticised the MPs for disregarding courts saying such actions were “recipe for anarchy.”
Anglican Church of Kenya bishops said the perennial misunderstanding between the county bosses and the Senate was a matter of concern that should be solved as soon as possible to ensure devolution succeeds.
Asking for a truce between the leaders, they said strained relations between governors and the members of the county assemblies were contributing towards the delay of the effective transfer of former national functions to the counties.
“The strained relation between governors, senators and members of the county assembly is threatening devolution. We are concerned that the devolution agenda is being negatively affected by individual political interests which are dividing the counties,” said ACK Archbishop Eliud Wabukala Thursday.
The bishops also expressed their worries on the continued disobedience of courts by the members of the legislature, saying they were setting a bad trend for other Kenyans.
“There is an apparent disrespect of the rule of law such as disregard of court orders which is a recipe for anarchy. We urge Kenyans to observe the rule of law regardless of their status in the society,” added Mr Wabukala during the press briefing at ACK Garden House in Nairobi.
The church also disapproved governors for engaging in lavish lifestyles at the expense of development in counties.
“It is worrying to see that most of the counties are yet to make progressive strides in their proposed development plans. We urge governors and county assemblies to sacrifice any luxurious spending of county funds and channel more resources to development,” he said.
Currently, Governors and Senators are engaged in a supremacy battle initiated by last week’s impeachment of Embu Governor Martin Wambora.
The Senators say they went about the impeachment as per the constitution and the County Government Act. The Governors faulted them saying they went against a court order barring the impeachment.
The two groups have also locked horns on the constitutionality of the summons issued by the lawmakers to the county chiefs.
The church also urged the national and county governments to avoid raising taxes in order to cushion Kenyans from higher cost of living.
“We also note that the current wage bill is unbearable and cannot be sustained by our struggling economy. We call upon all government arms to support the Salaries and Remuneration Commission,” the church leader said.
The government was also put to task to deal with the runaway insecurity, food insecurity and corruption and the high schools fees.
