Kenya:No excuse for Governors not to deliver services

By Samuel Ouma

County governments are now expected to run smoothly after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the 2020/2021 County Revenue Allocation Bill.

The Council of Governors had scaled down operations at the counties owing to deep financial woos after Senators failed to agree on the third basis of the county revenue sharing formula for a record of 10 times.

The president signed the bill on Thursday morning in the State House after it was presented to him by the speaker of the Senate Ken Lusaka.

The new law will see Ksh369.87 billion being disbursed to counties in the current financial year and it includes Ksh316.5 billion of Equitable Share and Ksh13.73 billion in Government of Kenya Conditional Grants.

Also included is Ksh9.43 billion from the road maintenance/fuel levy as well as Ksh30.2 billion in loans and grants.

A number of leaders were present when the Head of State signed the bill. They were National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, Treasury CS Ukur Yattani, Leaders of Majority in the Senate and the National Assembly Samuel Poghisio and Amos Kimunya.

Others were Head of Public Service Dr Joseph Kinyua, Clerks of both Houses Jeremiah Nyegenye (Senate) and Michael Sialai (National Assembly), Solicitor General Ken Ogeto and State House Deputy Chief of Staff Njee Muturi.

The 12-member Senate Committee that was tasked with developing a win-win formula reached a consensus on September 17 and introduced the formula to the Senate for debate where Senators unanimously voted to approve it.

The formula took into account eight perimeters as follows: Basic share 20%, population 18%, health 17%, poverty level 14%, agriculture 10%, roads 8%, land 8% and urban areas 5%.