National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei, on Thursday, April 27, challenged the Chairperson of the Council of Governors and Kirinyaga County boss Ann Waiguru to focus on enhancing and growing their counties instead of overreliance on budgetary allocations.
Shollei responded to the Council of Governors' lamentation that the Counties' revenue allocation was way less than what they bargained for.
The Deputy Speaker stated that Counties' revenue streams should be able to sustain the devolved units' budgets in a manner to take care of basic expenditures like salaries.
"The Head of State is working with development partners to ensure that our Counties receive the monies which they seriously need.
"However, the main focus should be local revenue generation. The money from the National Government should supplement the local revenue generation," Shollei stated.
President William Ruto, on Thursday, April 27, signed into law the Division of Revenue Bill, 2023, which the Senators passed after a lengthy debate between Kenya Kwanza and Azimio la Umoja Legislators.
Division of Revenue Bill, 2023 allocated counties Ksh385 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, which is Ksh15 billion more than the Ksh370 billion allocated in the current financial year (2022/2023).
Senators had pushed for an amendment to give counties Ksh407 billion, a decision that 25 Kenya Kwanza legislators rejected.
The Council of Governors condemned the decision by the Senators, claiming that they did not have the interest of devolution at heart.
"In the history of devolution, the Senate has never voted against the spirit of devolution in as far as the increase of resources is concerned. We call upon the Senate to uphold their primary mandate that county governments are well-resourced in order to perform their functions optimally," the Council of Governors stated.
While meeting Members of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly, Shollei praised President William Ruto for ensuring that the devolved units were well-funded despite the country's economic struggles.
Shollei told the County officials that apart from demanding more allocation of funds, County Governments should learn from the global communities how to manage finances.
She observed that other devolved units worldwide performed way better than the 47 County Governments.
The Uasin Gishu County members noted that growing source revenue was one of the strategies that could de-escalate the perennial standoff between counties and the National Government over revenue allocation.
