Governors vow to push for vote in dispute with Jubilee

Governors Tuesday insisted that they would press ahead with a referendum to amend the Constitution in order to allocate more funds to counties despite pledging to drop the push on Monday.

Speaking a day after 21 governors drawn from the Jubilee Coalition met Deputy President William Ruto to discuss devolution, governors’ council chairman Isaac Ruto insisted that they would engage all stakeholders in the implementation of the devolution process to “impress upon them” the need to hold a referendum to change the Constitution to raise the allocation to counties.

“We are meeting all the stakeholders on Thursday (tomorrow). We want all of them including the Jubilee government to understand why we need a referendum to change the Constitution so that we raise the allocation to the counties to 45 per cent, not even 40 per cent,” Mr Ruto told the Nation.

The announcement by the Bomet county boss is an about-turn from the position taken by governors allied to Jubilee after their meting with the Deputy President on Monday.

Then the governors agreed to drop their push for a referendum.

“We want the government to understand, and even lead us in the referendum to change the Constitution so that devolution can work,” he said.

Speed up process

He stated that Thursday’s meeting with the stakeholders would also discuss ways of expediting the transfer of functions to the counties.

He was supported by the Council’s secretary, Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka, who maintained that it was only through a referendum that the legislation to allocate counties more resources could be entrenched.