Nairobi — Taxpayers are poised to cough up Sh2.7 billion annually if the proposals to formally recognize village elders are passed into law, Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo has revealed.
Omollo told members of the National Assembly Administration and Security and Committee with an estimation of a maximum of 5 village elders in every sub location it will culminate to Sh226 Million monthly.
He was presenting amendments on the National Government Coordination Bill 2023 which sought to have the village council comprising elders and headed by a village administrator.
"Using a rough estimate of 5 village elders in a sublocation which will be paid Sh5,000 monthly, it will translate to Sh226,675,000. We are looking at an outlook which give or take will be Sh200 million."
Committee Chair Gabriel Tongoyo emphasized that the amendments in the bill ought to be passed saying the responsibility undertaken by village leaders is vital to the common mwananchi.
"This is doable considering the much help that these village elders give to this country. Its a figure we should be comfortable with," he said.
Homabay Town MP Peter Kaluma insisted that the village elders system needs to be reinforced arguing that hindrance of their formalization on the basis of resources is unwarranted.
"The biggest hinderance to the formalization of village elders has been finances. Its something that we have failed severally to unlock. Now that it's coming from the relevant department, a burden has been taken back from us," Kaluma said.
Laikipia West MP Sarah Korere questioned how renumeration of village elders will be funded yet in some parts of the country the operationalization of sub-location and location has been halted due to insufficient funding.
"They are units that are pending operationalization due to lack of resources. How do we say this is doable when we have location and sublocation which up to date have not been operationalized due to lack of resources," she stated.
Sotik MP Francis Sigei pushed for public participation in the recruitment of village elders saying a bottom up approach will ensure ownership of the structure system.
"We need to see a system where people are going to be consulted not purely the Parliamentary Service Commision.The elders down there should be selecting the people so that we avoid corruption," he noted.
Lawmakers called for the harmonization of setup of villages by the two arms of governments to avoid conflicts especially among insecurity prone counties and border region counties.
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Kisumu West MP Rosa Buyu warned that failure to harmonize the village structure will only escalate tension and division among the lowest unit of administration.
"The biggest thing we must do to avoid conflict on the ground is to deal with village as is using the county setup..a village is a village whether its known by the county or the national government.It should be the same unit," she stated.
Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi opposed the formalization of the village elders saying the national government structure has adequate reporting mechanism.
"Inspite of the fact that its popular in the public eye but in terms of implementation it will open a serious pandora box.For me leaving it as it is in the informal level makes a lot of sense since we have reporting mechanism," Kapondi stated.
The bill pushes for the need of the creation of village administrative units and establishment of additional offices dependent on necessity as determined by the Ministry of Interior and National Coordination and the availability of funds.
According to the Bill village administrators were to be designated as chairpersons of the village council, which would have not less than three and not more than five village elders.
