County priorities wrong

If a report by the Controller of Budget is anything to go by, then the clamour by a cross-section of governors for a constitutional amendment that will allow them to get at least 45 per cent of the country’s revenues is misplaced.

The governors are agitating for a referendum so that they can get more money, but according to the report, most of the money they have already got has gone towards the purchase of motor vehicles, and only an insignificant proportion was used for developing the counties.

This is a sign of not only misplaced priorities, it is also an indicator that unless governors and their assemblies are closely monitored, they will continue using taxpayers’ money on non-priority areas.

In the past, the governors have explained that most of the money was being used to pay the salaries of a bloated workforce, mostly inherited from the National Government, and to settle those liabilities inherited from the defunct civic authorities, which is why they need more.

But how do you explain allocating a mere Sh36.6 billion to development out of Sh169.4 billion, the cumulative total that counties spent in the last financial year?

Is it a wonder that many people are already questioning the benefits of devolution?