Turkana, Wajir Trounce Nairobi County in Development Budget Allocation

A report ranking the development allocation of Kenyan Counties has placed Nairobi County at a lower position on a list topped by semi-arid counties of Turkana, Mandera and Wajir.

Nairobi has consistently spent the lowest percentage of its budget on development averaging at 13%.

On the other hand, Turkana County led the pack with a 58% allocation whereas Mandera averaged at 53%.

According to the report by the Office of the Controller of Budget (OCOB), Nairobi has been among the worst performing counties in the country.

Turkana County, for instance, allocated a high of 72% of its total expenditure on development section, during the 2015/16 financial year, .

Since the devolved governments implementation in 2013, the country’s counties have collectively allocated 30% of all their budgets to development and infrastructure.

The report, however, showed that personal emoluments such as salaries and allowances by county governments have taken up the biggest budget cuts since devolution standing at 44%.

Kisumu and Tana River counties were also put on the spot for being among the worst performing counties allocating only 2% of their respective budget funds to development in the first year of devolution.

The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has, however, revamped the policy governing how funds will henceforth be allocated to the 47 counties by the National Government.

The funds will be shared based on the population size, the poverty rate and the land mass size of the given counties while 26% of revenues will be shared equally among all counties in order to aid in governance.