Efforts by Nakuru MCAs to create a Sh2 billion kitty were dealt a blow after Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui declined to sign the bill seeking to create the fund.
The Nakuru County Revenue Allocation Bill 2018 that the MCA’s unanimously passed in January this year was touted as key in fighting runaway poverty at the ward level.
The bill sought to give MCAs at least 25 percent of the county’s annual development funds to initiate their preferred projects in their wards through public participation.
Each of the 55 wards in the 11 sub-counties in Nakuru County would have been allocated between Sh20 million and Sh40 million in the next financial year had the Bill become a law.
However, the governor referred the Bill back to the county assembly citing various reasons why he could not assent to the bill.
He said that the county is financially strained due to high wage bill and inherited pending bills amounting to Sh3 billion.
He put the county’s annual wage bill as nearly Sh6 billion while county revenue collection has stagnated at Sh1.8 billion in the last two financial years.
Governor Kinyanjui said that the bill would result in a deficit of Sh1.2 billion and therefore deny the executive funds needed to undertake flagship projects.
He also poked holes at various sections of the bill saying that it does not meet the expectation of all stakeholders.
Some MCAs have termed the governor’s decision to refer back the Bill to the assembly as 'ill-advised and a betrayal'.