The Members of County Assembly summit held in Mombasa stood as a scare to Deputy President William Ruto who was among leaders across the political divide listed to give an address to the county legislators.
The deputy President revealed in his address to the close to 2300 MCAs that he did not easily accept the invite to address the gathering that he described as the largest legislative sitting in the country over car grant demands and a controversial Ksh28.1 Billion fund.
"When the Senate speaker invited me to speak at this summit, It was not easy for me to take up the invite. Even though he said I quickly said yes, the truth is that I hesitated. I had to ask him about the car grants demand and the ward development fund," posed the DP.
He, however, chose to reserve his remarks on the MCAs' demand for car grants and another allocation proposed for the ward development fund that would see the legislators directly administer the kitty at ward level.
"There are three principles that guide devolution; resources, power, and accountability. When we anchored devolution, at the heart was thoughts on how to share resources equitably and eliminate marginalization. Today Ksh1.1 Trillion has been devolved with Ksh54 Billion being conditional grants," he divulged.
He told the MCAs that devolution's inception envisaged a possibility of having the MCAs exercise direct watch on the county administration and instill accountability such that they would see government expenditure publicly audited. He asked the leaders to consider the power to hold government both at the county and national levels accountable as a tool making the public demand the most from them.
The locally elected leaders have in the recent past fueled their push for car grants that the salaries and Remunerations Commission boss Sarah Serem rejected in 2015 saying the move was like a free gift that could not be sustained. MCAs have mostly complained that they have a hard time when moving around wards without their own cars.
The ward development fund proposal by the County Ward Development Equilisation Bill 2018 is before the Senate and if it happens to see the light of the day, the Bill shall for starters put Sh28.1 Billion directly under the MCAs.