The Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 10, ruled on the contentious Division of Revenue Allocation Bill 2019.
Chief Justice David Maraga led a five-judge bench in dismissing the National Assembly's objections on the Bill.
He added that the matter was of great national importance and deserved to be heard, Citizen Digital reported.
The latest move came after the Council of Governors (CoG) led by Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya stormed the Supreme Court to present the petition back on July 16, 2019.
“It is devolution which is under attack, given that very few counties have managed to pass their budgets without the funds. We tried mediation, but it collapsed leaving us with no option after the National Assembly decided to desert us and go on recess without a solution,” an irate Oparanya stated during their march to the courts.
The battle between governors and National Assembly over allocation of funds led to a prolonged stalemate that crippled projects across the 47 counties.
CoG raised 25 key questions they wanted the Supreme Court to determine, among them a decision on whether laws passed by National Assembly on devolved functions without the Senate’s input are constitutional.
The two houses had sharply disagreed on the exact amount in the equitable revenue share to counties.
The National Assembly and National Treasury on one hand had allocated Ksh316 billion to counties , arguing that this has been occasioned by underperformance in revenue collection.
On the hand, the Senate and governors wanted the counties to get Ksh335 billion being a figure developed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation.
CJ Maraga ruled that the petition would now be heard on October 16, 2019.
