Governors protest MPs’ stand on roads

Council of Governors chairman Josphat Nanok. Governors have protested the decision by the National Assembly to renege on a deal that would have seen counties manage Class D Roads and up to 20 per cent of the fuel levy fund each year. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  Patrick Lang'at

Reporter

What you need to know:

  • The House pegged the levy fund allocations to counties at 16 per cent and re-classified roads that were previously under the counties as national governments’.

  • The Division of Revenue Bill 2018 gives counties Sh8.3 billion or 15 per cent of the levy fund.

  • Since the Kenya Roads Bill was drafted in 2015, the governors have asked the Senate to intervene in the matter.

Governors have protested the “appalling” decision by the National Assembly to renege on a deal that would have seen counties manage Class D Roads and up to 20 per cent of the fuel levy fund each year.

The House pegged the levy fund allocations to the devolved units at 16 per cent and re-classified roads that were previously under the counties as national governments’.

Council of Governors chairman Josephat Nanok said that it was insincere of the National Assembly to go against a February deal signed after negotiations in the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council chaired by Deputy President William Ruto.

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SIGNED AGREEMENT

“It is appalling that even after a signed agreement championed by the Deputy President himself, the National Assembly has failed to trigger the process by neither having the agreed increments for the Road Maintenance Levy Fund in the Division of Revenue Bill 2018, nor in the Roads Bill 2017 by retaining it at 16 per cent,” Mr Nanok said in a statement.

The Division of Revenue Bill 2018 gives counties Sh8.3 billion or 15 per cent of the levy fund. The county bosses want it pegged at 20 per cent.

“The National Assembly has also completely disregarded the retention of Class D as county roads by re-classifying previous county roads as national government roads,” Mr Nanok explained.

CATEGORY D ROADS

A 2016 re-classification of roads ratified by the National Assembly showed that counties will have to man 129,456 kilometres of roads in Classes D, E and lower, while the national government will control Classes A, B and C that make up only 39,995 kilometres.

But the re-classification of some roads that should be in Category D, the governors say, means that the national government has, in the end, retained more money, while the counties are heaped with more roads to maintain.

“Any reduction of counties’ allocation will ultimately affect overall county road sector operations now negatively impacted by the ongoing heavy rains,” the council chair said in the statement.

KENYA ROADS BILL

“Currently as it is, the county governments have limited alternative resourcing avenues due to lack of national government legislation to guide on the same.”

And for the umpteenth time since the Kenya Roads Bill was drafted in 2015, the governors have asked the Senate to intervene in the matter.

“We urge the Senate to exercise its function to serve and protect the interests of the counties by honouring the signed intergovernmental agreement while considering the Roads Bill,” said Mr Nanok.

After the deal was signed in February, the governors met officials of the national government and demanded that the deal be honoured in the Division of Revenue Bill, 2018.

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