The Senate in session. PHOTO/nation.co.ke
Senators are heading into a heated with their counterparts in the National Assembly after a move by the MPs to reduce allocations to counties.
The MPs are in plans to reduce the county funds for the 2017-2018 financial year by Sh8 billion.
The Division of Revenue Bill has already been opened to public participation by the Senate Finance Committee as the senators work on fast-tracking its enactment into law.
According to Nation, the Bill will first go through mediation where a committee of equal members from both Houses will strike a compromise.
However, senators are categorical that MPs will not use them to rubber-stamp their ‘mischief’ after reducing the equitable revenue share from a high Sh299.1 billion proposed by the National Treasury to Sh291.1 billion.
Although Treasury CS Henry Rotich came to the defence of the MPs in adjusting the figures, senators are seeing the move as targeting to deny county governments enough funds for devolved functions.
Makueni senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr and his Nyeri counterpart Mutahi Kagwe argued the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has done a fantastic job but the National Assembly is watering down the achievement.
Earlier last week, the commission’s CEO George Ouko told Senate’s Finance Committee that CRA had proposed devolved units be given a sharable revenue of Sh314 billion.
According to him, the Sh291.1 billion meant that county governments will be growing at 3.8 per cent which is below the 6.7 per cent inflation rate.
“With the current allocation, the county governments will not even meet inflationary trends,” said Kagwe.
“For an allocation to be meaningful as growth from the previous years, inflation must be factored in.”
He added that frequent worker strikes were due to insufficient funding to counties even though 70 per cent of employees in the sector are under the counties.
“To protect devolution, there has to be a healthy respect of requirements of the counties,” Kagwe said.
Governors are now counting on the Senate to review the allocations which they say will hamper service delivery at the counties.
Kilonzo on his part said the Senate will reject the Bill in protest against Treasury's move to conspire with the National Assembly sabotage counties and devolution by ensuring devolved services do not run smoothly.