The Council of Governors has called for a crisis meeting on Thursday, February 22 aimed at discussing the clash between county governments and the national government over devolved functions.
While announcing the emergency meeting, the county leaders stated that the national government has seemingly appeared intent on encroaching on some devolved functions.
It is reported that 18 governors are expected to attend the meeting, where they will deliberate on the way forward regarding the deepening row.
The governors have alleged that the national government has been using underhand tactics and quoting different figures for select functions such as Health, Housing and Trade.
In the deepening tiff, all the governors declined to attend a launch at the Deputy President's home on Friday where Gachagua presided over the launch of the Stipend Payment of the County Health Promoters Programme (CHPs).
It is alleged that all the governors snubbed the invitation even after calls were made to have them arrive at the launch later during the day.
The stipend will attract an excess of Ksh250 million, according to the governors, in payment to the county workers, an amount which the governors term as exaggerated.
According to the counties, they are opposing an allocation of Ksh3 billion to be made to county governments for the payment after the DP called upon the Treasury to release funds to support the payments.
“The severity of these transgressions is escalating daily through direct budget support for the devolved functions channelled through National Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the counties and deliberate use of members of parliament to roll out these programmes disregarding constitutional roles of counties,” read a statement issued by the Council of Governors.
Further, the governors have raised alarm over the national government’s failure to allocate funds to the counties citing that the roles that the national government has taken over such as housing and health promotion.
In addition to the allegations of exaggerated quoted amounts, the governors have also faulted the National Assembly, stating that the MPs are being used to launch and drive projects which are within the county governments mandate.
The meeting is expected to address the aforementioned issues and deliberate on the course of action for the county chiefs going forward.
