Governors and senators should end power wrangles

The need for setting out clear guidelines on the roles played by governors, senators and the National Assembly is increasingly becoming urgent.

 For the better part of last year, the National Assembly and the Senate quarelled over the modalities of passing bills in both houses after senators complained that Members of Parliament had ignored and even shunned their contribution.

There were incidents where governors and senators disagreed on the scope of the latter’s oversight roles. Such misunderstandings have the capacity of holding back the country.

The Senate has unilaterally created a County Monitoring Committee whose aim is to evaluate projects within counties. Besides this, the Senate seeks to create a formula on revenue allocation that encourages counties to step up their local revenue collection to attract higher allocations.

While this could be well meaning, it negates constitutional provisions that grant the Auditor General the right to monitor the use of money in counties. The Commission on Revenue Allocation on the other hand has the authority to decide the amount allocated to counties based on the existing formula that Parliament has not recommended for change.

Leaders must act within the confines of the law to avoid conflicts and the costly duplication of work.