Central region spends Sh3b to pay MCAs and governors’ allowances

Three governors in Mt Kenya region have tripled internally generated revenue since 2013 while three others met their revenue target the financial year ending June 2019 in a move that signals potential for counties to reduce much tendency on funding from the national government.

However, the revenues generated are still low, compared to the total cash needed to ­finance development and recurrent expenditure.

New data released by the Office of the Controller of Budget shows revenue generates us still around 10 percent of total annual cash requirement, putting the burden on governors to map new revenue sources as well close the loopholes that cause leakage of the same.

Embu County more than tripled its revenue from Sh168 million in 2013 to generating a total of Sh629.4 million from own revenue sources in the year ending June 2019. This amount represented an increase of Sh192.05 million, representing 66.3 per cent of the annual target. Embu Governor Martin Wambora said more can be achieved in terms of the amount of revenue but decried lack of professionals.

Assembly of Kiambu spent Sh90.64 million on committee sitting allowances for the 93 MCAs and Speaker. This was against an annual allocation of Sh74 million. Each MCA took home an average monthly sitting allowance of Sh81,217.

In Nyeri, the County assembly spent Sh213.6 million and the Executive Sh118.84 million on foreign and local trips in the 2018/19 financial year. This was an increase of 60.4 percent from a total of Sh200.86 million spent in the 2017/18 financial year. Each of the 44 Nyeri MCAs took home an average of Sh73,633 in monthly sitting allowance which translated to Sh39.76 million in the 2018/19 financial year.

Meru which is in third position among the central region counties that spend huge sums of money on local and foreign trips, had the assembly spend Sh260 million and the Executive Sh68.37 million. Each of the 69 MCAs earned Sh99,836 per month in meeting sitting allowances, according to the report by Controller of Budget.

In Embu, the total amount spent on local and foreign trips total Sh299.64 million, of that amount, assembly accounted for Sh156.52 million and Executive Sh143.12 million. In Embu each MCA earned Sh74,435 per month in sitting allowance bringing total amount in sitting allowance for the 34 MCAs to Sh31.26 million for the County during the period covered in the report by Controller of Budget.

In Nyandarua, of the Sh292.1 million spent on local and foreign travels, the Executive spent Sh194.59 million while the assembly used Sh97.51 million. Nyandarua’s 40 MCAs are smiling all the way to the bank after earning Sh91,161 every month in sitting allowances in the last financial year.

Each of the 54 MCAs in Murang’a County earned Sh78,977 in average monthly sitting allowance translating to a total of Sh51.18 million during the 2018/19 financial year. During the same period, the County spent Sh292.06 million on local and foreign trips for its officials. Of that amount, assembly spent Sh170.17 million while the executive spent Sh121.88 million.

In Tharaka Nithi, domestic and foreign travel gobbled a total of Sh197.11 million, which is Sh97.49 million by the assembly and Sh99.61 by the Executive. The County spent Sh20.17 million in assembly committee sitting allowances translating to Sh80,046 per month for each of 20 MCAs.

For Laikipia, the County’s expenditure on domestic and foreign travel amounted to Sh196.03 million. Of this amount, assembly spent Sh73.08 million while Sh122.95 was spent by the Executive. Average take home in sitting allowances for each of the 24 MCAs in Laikipia during the 2018/19 financial year was Sh50,343 per month.

Kirinyaga spent Sh167.21 million on local and foreign trips, and comprised of Sh103.99 by the assembly and and Sh63.21 million by the Executive. Kirinyaga has 34 MCAs and each earned an average of Sh79,878 in sitting allowances per month. The County spend Sh33.55 million in sitting allowances for the MCAs during the 2018/19 financial year