Chairman of Governors' Council Peter Munya has challenged the national government to consider supporting amendments in the constitution to have more resources directed to counties.
Speaking in Kisii town on Friday, the Meru governor said county governments were struggling to have an impact in the rural areas due to limited resources from the national government.
He said county governments were forced to direct more resources to recurrent expenditure and wondered why the national government was devolving functions without increasing the allocation to county units.
“We cannot fight all times about allocation of more resources to counties. Time has come for national leadership to support amendment of the constitution to increase the allocation to a minimum of 45 per cent of the national budget from the current 15 per cent. We have a lot of functions devolved and most of the allocation is diverted to recurrent expenditure,” he said.
He said many county governments were struggling to complete projects causing persistent pressure from locals and accused the national treasury of delay in releasing cash meant for counties.
“In most cases, many projects remain stall became of limited resources. Furthermore, the treasury is always reluctant to release the little we receive from the national government. I would like to challenge top national leadership to avoid being impediment to development and instead support counties by allocating more resources,” he added.
He defended the county governments by insisting that many had set ‘incredible’ development records.
“Our counties have shown that devolution is the only way to go. We have set incredible development records in terms of infrastructure, healthcare and agriculture hence there is no doubt that with more allocation, our people will be able to see the real impact of county governments. It’s therefore important for the national government to support Pesa Mashinani initiative,” Munya said.