Nairobi — Devolved units are set to receive an allocation of Sh385 billion commencing the next financial year that begins in July this year after President William Ruto assented to the Division of Revenue Bill 2023.
In the allocation for the financial year 2023/2024 the counties will receive an additional Sh 10 Billion which is 4.2 percent increase from the current Sh 370 billion.
The National government is allocated Sh 2.1Billion with the projected revenue collection to facilitate the seamless allocation projected at Sh 2.5B.
The Division of Revenue Bill was passed without amendments in the National Assembly and the Senate despite futile attempts by the Azimio Senators to amend the bill an increase the county allocation to Sh407B.
22 senators allied to President William Ruto voted to shoot down the amendment against nine from Raila Odinga-led Azimio coalition.
When the voting on the bill arrived, 33 senators, including some from Azimio, voted to approve the proposal putting to an end any hopes of revising the amount to Sh407 billion that was being supported by Azimio senators.
Kitui Senator Enock Wambua castigated the Kenya Kwanza Alliance allied leader for stifling devolution by supporting an increase of Sh 10 Billion to counties yet the Commission of Revenue allocation had recommended Sh 425B.
"Today indeed is a very dark day as far as devolution in this country is concerned. We have seen a situation on the floor of the Senate where Kenya Kwanza senators have conspired to deny funds to counties," said the Senate Deputy Minority Leader.
Senate Minority Chief Whip Ledama Ole Kina lamented that the National Government had received a huge chunk of the revenue yet critical functions had been devolved.
"Instead of defending counties, the 22 senators have decided to defend the position of Kenya Kwanza administration of retaining money in the national government," said Olekina.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna decried that Senate has failed to protect the interest of devolution which is their core mandate and instead took a political stand on the matter.
"It saddens me that senators who swore to defend their counties have today turned into betrayers of their counties," stated Sifuna.
Cash Crisis
National Treasury has only disbursed only Sh214.6 billion in equitable share to county governments since June last year with over Sh155 billion still outstanding two months to the end of the financial year.
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Cash crisis in devolved units will continue to bite after the National Treasury only managed to disburse Sh31 billion as part of the equitable share for the month of January.
Treasury was expected to release Sh125 billion to the devolved units for January with an outstanding balance of Sh94 billion whose delayed disbursement will have a ripple effect on service delivery.
COG Chair Anne Waiguru noted that the exchequer is yet to release monies for February, March, and April with county staff in critical functions such as health, threatening to down tools due to delayed salaries.
"Salaries for our core workers and our healthcare workers haven't been paid. There are counties that are running late and those who have managed to do nothing else but pay salaries. There is no county that has no salary arreas," said Waiguru.
She made the revelations during her grilling before the Senate Public Accounts Committee.
Waiguru decried that the county governments always lag behind in cash disbursement despite holding critical functions which risk grinding to a halt.
"The situation on the ground is dire, we have never been here.I have been a Minister and a governor for 5 years. We have never had this kind of backlogs before but we are hopeful that with the interventions of treasury," she said.
