Raila, Ruto men clash over roads rehabilitation billions

L-R: Peter Anyang Nyong'o acting ODM party leader,Edwin Sifuna ODM secretary general & Godfrey Osotsi ODM deputy party leader speaking after ODM central committee meeting which resolved in the mediation on additional allocations to counties and the new formula on shareable revenue proposed by the CRA. [Wilberforce Okwiri,Standard] The friendly fire between ODM and Kenya Kwanza leaders over the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) could be the deal breaker in the so-called broad-based government. The online spat that was started by Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyong'o degenerated into a war of words, with President William Ruto's allies terming his remarks as an attempt to blackmail the President. Prof Nyong'o had accused the President of trying to kill devolution by trying to creep back to the pre-devolution times. He said the Kenya Kwanza administration had failed to manage health effectively. While terming Nyong'o's remarks as "a very poor blackmail attempt", Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot wrote on X: "Its quite hard being WSR (William Samoei Ruto). ODM members, just like all their other colleagues in the National Assembly, are insistent on retaining RMLF. The Senate has stood with COG (Council of Governors) on this matter to the best of its abilities albeit with minimum success. Then, out of the blues in classic political pietism, the deputy Party leader of ODM and Gov of Kisumu, @AnyangNyongo emerges blaming the President. A very poor blackmail attempt!" But ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna fired back. "Prof Nyong'o does not hold the position you claim he holds. The ODM Party Leader Baba himself has repeatedly and consistently stated in public his position on RMLF, CDF and support of devolution. We are yet to hear from the UDA Party Leader on any of these matters. I distinctly remember the Minority Leader in the National Assembly Junet Mohamed saying they will follow Raila's guidance on RMLF. We are yet to hear from the Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa." Raila has in the recent past supported governors in their quest to control the kitty even though the President on Sunday said the national government is the best placed to manage the funds. Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, while defending Ruto, criticised the Kisumu Governor of "personalising the attacks against the President", accusing governors of "ballooning corruption, poor development performance and insatiable greed for public funds in counties". "Nyongo should ask his colleagues in the Council of Governors to account for ballooning corruption, poor development performance and insatiable greed for public funds in our counties. They are the biggest threat to growth and flourishing devolution," he said. Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang also found himself in a corner after his proposal to reduce counties from 47 to 13 was not received well by Nyong'o. Kanjwang wrote: "The structure we have today is bloated and expensive. Reducing the number of counties to at least 13 would ensure efficient service delivery and better use of public resources." But Nyong'o described the idea a knee-jerk reaction of "an accountant mesmerized by the game of easy calculation of figures". "At the dawn of devolution, there were several proposals regarding how many counties were needed and appropriate for this nation. These reasons need to be considered before throwing numbers into the vague marketplace of proposals," Nyong'o wrote on social media. Kanjwang swiftly responded, maintaining that the idea of 47 counties was an overkill. "How did we end up with 47 county governments? There was no rocket science, we simply took the 47 districts that existed in 1992 and converted them into counties. These districts created by Nyayo were largely tribal enclaves devoid of economic considerations. The alternate view, which flopped, was to adopt 13 regional units based on existing provinces with Nairobi as a special zone. Aware of the flawed design of the final decision, the Committee of Experts proposed a framework for future review of county boundaries," he said.

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