Elders wants Uhuru to dissolve ‘idle’ counties

BY MERCY KAHENDA

NAKURU, KENYA: The Rift Valley Council of Elders has called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to suspend all counties that are not working towards achieving expected development goals following the ongoing Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) countrywide strike.

According to the Rift Valley Council of Elders Chairman Gilbert Kabage, the President has the powers under Article 192 of the Constitution to suspend all county governments if they are not performing.

The elders, who were speaking in Nakuru, said most projects in various counties have not kicked off since MCAs began the strike.

Should resign

“It is sad that MCAs are busy talking about salary increase despite having delivered very little to those people they are representing. If they are not satisfied, they should resign,” said Kabage.

The calls come after Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo withheld Sh7.8billion from over 20 counties after they failed to draw balanced plans of their expenditure.

According to Odhiambo, some of the counties had huge deficits in their budgets which they had failed to explain during evaluation.

Kabage said the current crisis facing counties on revenue collection and taxes was as a result of the boycott which had led  to poor services.

“These are extraordinary circumstances which call for extraordinary measures,” Kabage said.