Jubilee is facing legal action after NASA governors threatened to go to court to compel the government to release county funds on time.
The disgruntled governors have accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of withholding the funds meant for county development whereas their Jubilee counterparts have received the money from the National Treasury.
On Saturday, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya declared he would be moving to the High Court to seek a constitutional interpretation on the government’s decision to delay the release of the funds as it totally violates the provisions of the Constitution.
“I will be moving to court as Kakamega County to seek the constitutional interpretation on when the State is supposed to release the funds. We are sitting in the offices doing nothing yet our people are suffering for lack of services. The President and his deputy should be jailed for killing devolution,” Mr Oparanya declared.
[caption caption=" Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya"]
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A section of the governors claimed that this was part of a wider scheme to kill devolution by starving the counties of their rightful funding.
The Sunday Nation reported that the move to withhold the cash came after suspicion by some senior Jubilee officials that opposition governors fund the campaigns of NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga with the governors revealing that they were yet to receive disbursements since July.
On the other hand, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich stated that delays in the disbursements had been occasioned by complications from a bill passed in Parliament.
Mr Rotich conveyed that the problems arose in the County Allocation of Revenue Act (Cara), enacted by Parliament in June, and the Cash Disbursements Schedule, which the Senate adopted in late August.
“The two were not properly synchronized, which occasioned the delay. But we shall proceed to disburse once the anomaly is rectified,” he maintained.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri reiterated Rotich's words calling for patience from the governors adding that his Ministry had carried out its mandate as required under the law.
“It is all frustration around money, but let me tell the grumbling governors that it is not my ministry’s mandate to disburse funds,” he maintained.
[caption caption="Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri"]
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