County governments may not be in place following failure by Treasury to set aside funds to establish 47 counties immediately after the March 2013 election.
The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) warned that lack of funds has far reaching consequences on the form of government Kenya will take after next year’s elections.
“We have written to Parliament to ensure the funds are released to cater for county governments for the first three months before the June 2013 Budget is read. But so far, Treasury has not heeded our call. So we may not have county governments come next year as envisaged in the Constitution,” Micah Cheserem, chairman CRA said. Despite raising the issues with MP Elias Mbau, who chairs Budget Parliamentary Committee, both Parliament and Treasury have failed to act on the amount to be released for the county governments.
In a letter addressed to both Mbau and his vice-chairman Alfred Sambu, the 47 counties will have to share Sh610 billion with the national government. While the national government is to be allocated Sh407 billion based on the sharing formula approved by parliamentary committee, the counties require Sh203 billion each as at March 5, 2013. The money is to be allocated by this Parliament.
“As you are aware, the Minister for Finance will need to present the following three Bills before Parliament is prorogued. These are the Division Revenue Bill, County Revenue Bill and County Appropriation Bill. You will recall we had recommended that Sh203 billion was to be the share of county governments, assuming they were in office the full financial year 2012/2013,” Cheserem says in a letter dated November 27 addressed to Mbau. The letter to Sambu is dated December 18. “We are requesting the Minister for Finance to prepare the above necessary legislation to ensure a smooth transition to the devolved system of government,” he adds.
Cheserem is now worried that both Parliament and Treasury have failed to heed his call.
“Given that the General Election is to be held on March 4, 2013, the share should be allocated to the county governments for four months, that is March to June 2013.”
–– Stories by Allan Kisia, Luke Anami and Peter Opiyo
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