By Iptisam Abdallah, Nairobi
The Council of Governors resorted to shutting down services in counties due to delayed disbursement of funds by the National Treasury.
CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru lamented that counties have not received allocations for four months and called upon the National Treasury to disburse Sh94.3 billion arrears with no further delays.
“The four month delay is unprecedented to the history of devolution and negates the spirit of the meeting held in Naivasha between President William Ruto and the governors. We therefore call upon the Treasury to immediately release the Sh94.35 billion to counties,” said Waiguru
“By dint of this, the council of Governors hereby issues a 14 days’ notice to shut down counties if February, March and April arrears are not released within two weeks,” she added
Waiguru also condemned the senators for undermining devolution by voting to pass the 2023 division of Revenue Bill without amendment.
Council of Governors
“We wish to convey our dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Senate voted on the division of Revenue Bill, 2023, rejecting the amendment that would have seen the devolved units get Sh407 billion as equitable share in the F/Y 2022/2023,” she stated
“We call upon the Senate to uphold their primary mandate that county governments are well resourced in order to perform their functions optimally,” she added.
Waiguru disapproved the proposed attempt by the National government to claw back devolution by seeking to micromanage County governments mandate on revenue collection terming it as unconstitutional.
“There is no reason why County Governments should be submitting particulars of new taxes to the national Treasury and CRA. The chapter 12 of the constitution gives the levels of the government distinct mandate on the revenue raising capabilities. Therefore the bill before the government unconstitutional. Counties are not subservient to national government,” she said.
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