Mombasa County Governor Abdullswamad Sherrif claims the Controller of Budget is yet to release disaster management funds to the counties.
Speaking on Spice FM, Abdullswamad said; “The Controller of Budget refused for us to spend our disaster money as counties. She [Margaret Nyakang’o] now wants us to change an aspect of the Disaster Act, a clause that needs to be amended even if it does not affect anyone,” he said.
Currently, 188 have died, 125 are injured and 90 are still missing following heavy rains and floods in the country.
According to Abdullswamad, Nyakang’o should have approved the funds since the country is facing a disaster and the clause can be amended at a later date.
“It would have been better to say that yes as much as we are approving, we are giving you a time frame to amend the clause,” he said.
It is not clear which clause is to be amended, however, for any amendment to take place, the county officials need to conduct a public participation and then submit it to its assembly which will also conduct a public participation before approving.
Abdullswamad says the process is time-consuming and the funds will not serve the purpose if approved at a later date.
Further, he says counties have been using money from equitable shares to attend to flood victims, funds which are not enough.
Data from the Office of the Controller of Budget (CoB) indicates that Kenyan counties cumulatively set aside Sh1.9 billion to their emergency funds in the 2023/2024 financial year.
Out of this, the administrative units have spent Sh963 million as of December last year, leaving Sh973 million unspent.
According to the CoB data, 34 out of the 47 counties have set up emergency or disaster funds for the current financial year, with Sh 871 million budgeted in the last financial year left unused.
Nairobi County for instance, leads in expenditure from the disaster fund with Sh180 million out of the budgeted Sh200 million disbursed as of December last year, representing 90 per cent of its approved disaster budget for the year.
This means that the county has 10 per cent of the disaster management funds to spend in the current flood disaster.
At the same time, other counties, particularly those from the arid and semi-arid areas, spent all the money allocated for their emergency funds in the first half of the financial year, raising concern over their ability to respond to the current disaster.
Others including Nandi, Bungoma, and Kakamega, have all budgeted Sh100 million for their emergency funds but were yet to spend a shilling out of it as of December last year despite the Constitution clearly stating that the County Disaster Management Fund shall be used towards expenses for emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, relief and reconstruction in the county after a disaster.
Currently, 29 counties have been severely affected by the ongoing floods in the country according to a statement by Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development Principal Secretary Kello Harsama.
