County Governors on Monday, May 22, threatened to shut down service delivery across all counties due to the failure of the national government to disburse devolution funds.
Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, who serves as the Council of Governors chairperson, announced that the 47 counties were poised to have all its staff temporarily out of work.
On top of sending the staff home, Barasa further revealed that the move would paralyse the health and education sectors.
“We are going to have a complete shutdown and this means collapse of all essential services delivery.
“All workers of the county will be sent home until such a time when we will have money,” he explained.
On which services will be affected, Barasa expounded, “A shutdown means that we will stop delivering medical services as well as close down Early Childhood Education (ECDE) centres and polytechnics.”
According to data from Economic Survey, county governments have a workforce of over 204,000 workers.
County governments are the second largest employer in the country after the national government which employs close to 700,000 people.
If the 204,000 workers are sent home, it will be a huge economic blow to thousands of households who depend on the income.
It will also mean that thousands of children in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions as well as early learning institutions will be affected.
Additionally, since health is a devolved unit, thousands of Kenyans will be left without access to healthcare.
On Wednesday, May 17, governors gave the government a 7-day notice before shutting down counties.
“As CoG, we will be meeting next week to assess the possibility to shut down counties. The National Treasury has reneged on the promise for the timely release of funds and ensures full absorption by counties.
“We cannot have arrears going up to around four months and we are almost finishing the current financial year,” a statement from the governors read in part.
Counties were allocated Ksh385 billion for the 2023/2024 financial year despite having demanded for Ksh426 billion.
