The Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, chaired by Mandera County Senator Mohamed Mahamud, raised a red flag on the exorbitant expenditure on construction or purchase of residences for governors, deputy governors and county assembly speakers in addition to county executive headquarters and assemblies.
During the session, Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior questioned the logic behind a big chunk of the county's revenue being allocated for the executive's comfort - money that would have been otherwise used for development projects.
“Why would you, for instance, propose to construct a deputy governors’ residence for Kshs. 214 Million in among the most underdeveloped county in the country?” he posed during the session.
His question raised a concern shared by many people as the lauded him for highlighting the discrepancy in the counties.
"Spot on. Was there a proposed standard construction approved by the ministry of works for Governors and Deputy Governor's residences? I doubt that the national govt estimates for this were over 20 million if at all," one user noted.
[caption caption="Reactions to Senator Mutula's question"]
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"Thanks, senator @SenMutula for doing great legislative work and oversight over counties," another stated.
One Kenyan added; "How is it possible that county administration is so disconnected from the people they represent? This is what devolution was to cure but its multiplying."
On Thursday, the committee asked the Controller of Budget to suspend funds meant for construction of official residences for Governors, their Deputies and Speakers of County Assemblies in the 2018/19 budgets.
The Budget and Finance Committee argued that the variance in the cost of construction was inexplicably wide.
Mohamed Muhamud, the committee's Chair, called for experts and stakeholders to be brought in to review the projects' structural designs to ensure they are rationalised and harmonised.
Asserting the need for specific guidelines to be put in place, he lamented that counties had pumped huge amounts of money into non-core projects at the expense of core ones.
“Counties are investing heavily in non-core projects at the expense of core projects and our mandate is to ensure that public funds are used prudently,” he stated.
[caption caption="Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr (R), and Mandera Senator Mohamed Mahamud during the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget hearing on 5/7/2018"]
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