Cheserem: Give counties more money

By Michael Wesonga 

Kenya: Commission for Revenue Allocation Chairman Micah Cheserem has is disappointed over ‘meagre’ allocations devolved to counties by the national Government.

Cheserem said the Sh226 billion devolved only amounted to 20 per cent of the national budget and was thus too little to sustain good governance.

He asked the concerned to stop giving Kenyans misguiding statistics that peg the figure at about 42 per cent of national budget. “The Government is on record as saying they spend about Sh300 billion and most recently up to Sh500 billion as a single entity,” he said.

Cheserem said the current allocation meant that only Sh20 was being devolved to the counties for every Sh100 made, yet most of the functions had been devolved to the counties.

“The bare minimum should be at least Sh250 billion that would translate to Sh25 allocation to the counties for every Sh100 made,” he advised.

He spoke in Eldoret during a stakeholder’s forum for the formation of the Senate Committee on Public Investment and Accounts Committee chaired by Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale.

Cheserem, however, cautioned against misappropriation of public funds and called for speedy trial and expedition of justice on corrupt State officers. “We must not devolve corruption. That is why House committees must be adequately funded to discuss current reports, unlike in the past, where they have been discussing reports dating back to five years,” he said.

Dr Khalwale faulted the formula used by the CRA is disbursement of devolved funds and said the Senate would deliberate on it. “The formula has never been deliberated by the Senate, which has the core mandate in such matters,” he said.

He said the formula’s stipulation basing the ‘sharable’ revenue on last audited accounts, which in this case dates back to the Tenth Parliament, was erroneous and needed revision.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission CEO Mumo Matemu assured that the body was not engaging in negative profiling of governors, but rather tracking down State officials engaged in corruption.

Also present were Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro, who chaired the meeting, senators Amos Wako, Hassan Omar, Martha Wangari and Mong’are Okongo.

Others represented were Transition Authority by chair Kinuthia wa Mwangi, Public Procurement and Oversight Authority Deputy Director General Jane Njoroge, Office of the Auditor General Joshua Musyimi from the controller of Budget and the deputy director of CID Gideon Kimilu.