Governors accept Sh387b, warn critical services face uncertainty

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa said the Council of Governors is not satisfied with Sh387 billion given to devolved units. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

The Council of Governors (CoG) has warned that some critical activities may be paralysed over the failure to secure Sh400 billion in equitable share of revenue.

According to the governors, even though they have accepted Sh387 billion as an equitable share of revenue to end the stalemate with the Senate on the controversial Division of Revenue Bill, 2024 though times await counties.

Through its Finance, Economic, and Planning Committee Chairperson, Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, the CoG said they have accepted the amount but are not comfortable with the MPs and Senators' decision since their irreducible minimum was Sh400 billion.

They claimed that some activities may not be implemented over the failure to get the amount they wanted.

“We have had a stalemate on how much counties should receive and recently our MPs and Senators decided to give counties Sh387billion. As the Finance Chair in the council of governors, I want to be clear that we have accepted the money categorically, but we are not satisfied with the decision,” said Barasa.

Barasa said to realise devolution and fulfil the functions of the counties, the devolved units need more money, stating that some critical functions risk being thrown into limbo.

“We are not contended because we will not be able to meet and realize some of the critical services that we are supposed to deliver and give our people, we have to deal with the issue of the salary of employees, housing levy, industrial parks and other key issues like medical equipment that we need to service after the national government stop doing it and, therefore, counties need more allocations moving forward,” said Barasa.

Barasa however praised Senators for standing firmly behind governors' push urging MPs to increase the allocation in subsequent years to actualize devolution.

Lurambi Member of Parliament MP Bishop Titus Khamala said the national assembly should not be in conflict with the governors because they serve a larger population of people.

“We know the work our governors are doing and as members of national assembly we should not be seen we are in conflict with governors because we serve the same people, we should help in ensuring counties get more money and that there is no delay in disbursement of funds to counties,” said Khamala.

On Tuesday, the 18 members of the mediation committee agreed to end the stalemate that had threatened to paralyse service delivery at the 47 counties by agreeing to approve and allocate Sh387 billion to counties.

The MPs voted to overturn the earlier allocation of Sh400billon that had been approved under the Division of Revenue Bill, 2024 citing the effects of the rejected controversial Finance Bill, 2024.

The MPs had agreed to reduce the money by Sh20billion to Sh380billion from Sh400billion while Senators had maintained that counties should get Sh400billion earlier agreed and approved.

The mediation committee met twice in bid to unlock the impasse but failed to agree on the amount to go to counties.

Governors had maintained that they would not accept the push by MPs to slash their funds.

“We want to tell our lawmakers that counties need money so that they can finance their development projects and uplift the lives of their people and as Governors our stand is clear that we want Sh400 billion from the Exchequer as opposed to Sh380 billion being pushed by MPs,” he had earlier said.

Barasa lauded ODM Leader Raila Odinga for standing with the Governors and urged Senators to remain firm.

On Friday last week, Raila accused MPs of undermining devolution by encroaching on the responsibilities of county governments. 

Speaking at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi, Raila urged the National Assembly and the Senate to resolve their standoff over an additional Sh20 billion in shareable revenue for counties.