Mombasa County has been hit hard by County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2019, (CARA).
The Coastal county will get Sh7 billion, from Sh8.2 billion it received in the 2018/19 financial year losing Sh1.2 billion.
This is likely to affect development in Mombasa.
The bill uses six parameters to share revenue; poverty, fiscal responsibility, population, land, development and equal share are the determinants of what counties receive.
However, Mombasa County Finance Executive Maryam Mbaruk said that development will not be affected by the cut.
Mbaruk stated that most projects have alternative sources of funds.
“We have alternative models of financing our major projects like housing and desalination. So we still intend to deliver on these projects. We are also stepping up local revenue collection mechanisms, having digitised some of the collection streams so as to bridge this new cut,” she said as quoted by Daily Nation.
Another affected coastal county is Kilifi. However, contrary to Mombasa County Finance Executive's stand, ther Kilifi counterpart Samuel Kombe Nzai suggested that the Sh10.44 billion allocation, from Sh10.84 billion last year will indeed affect development.
“The Sh400 million would have gone a long way in boosting some of these projects. For instance, we will now have to look elsewhere for funds to hire more health workers and early childhood development, tutors. We will now have to enhance our revenue collection to bridge this deficit,” Nzai said.