Thursday, February 22, 2024 - Governors reportedly rejected a Ksh390 billion offer made to them by the National Treasury as the proposed equitable share allocation for the 2024/2025 Financial Year at a meeting chaired by President William Ruto.
At the meeting held on the sidelines of the ongoing Kenya
Kwanza retreat in Naivasha, the governors, despite pleas from Ruto, stuck to
their guns insisting on their initial request of Ksh439.5 billion, which the
Treasury whittled down to the proposed amount.
The governors further insisted that the Treasury channels Ksh10.52 billion from the Road Maintenance Levy (RMF) to counties.
Reports indicate that despite the governors standing their
ground, the Treasury declined to increase the allocation, noting that the government
is experiencing financial constraints limiting the government's capacity to
spend.
Amid the stalemate, the governors have requested further
consultations with the national government expressing concerns that failure to
allocate the requested amount will hamper development in the counties.
Speaking during the retreat, the Council of Governors (CoG)
chair, Anne Waiguru further faulted the national government for encroaching on
county functions.
Waiguru cautioned that the encroachment would lead to a
clash between the two levels of government.
She noted that devolution was a fruit of the people’s
demands to decentralise governance and bring services closer to them, but the
national government was undermining this right.
In addition, the governors also cautioned the Cabinet
Secretaries to resist temptations to claw back on devolved
functions and eating into county governments' budgets.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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