TWO Nyeri county leaders are optimistic that the National Assembly and the Senate will agree on distribution of resources and pump more cash to counties.
The two houses have not yet agreed on the amount that should be distributed to the counties, despite mediations.
But Governor Mutahi Kahiga and Speaker John Kaguchia called on both houses to settle on the figure proposed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).
The two spoke on Friday in the governor’s office.
The National Assembly has been insisting that the equitable share sharable is Sh316 billion, the Senate Sh327 billion after climbing down from Sh335 billion recommended by the CRA.
They also want the National Government to allow counties to fully implement devolved functions.
“Let the National Government and Treasury follow the Constitution. Functions must be followed by finances. When water has been devolved it should be devolved in total. The same applies to health and agriculture,” Kahiga said.
Though the functions have been devolved, the National Government has been retaining most of the resources in Nairobi, he said.
“We want to call on the National Government to stop coming at the grassroots to dig boreholes while counties are also doing boreholes. Let them give us the money and we shall drill them,” he said.
He also said the National Government was buying drugs for hospitals yet the function is devolved and end up buying the wrong drugs in some counties, leading to wastage.
Health, he said, is retaining Sh47 billion at national level for financing UHC yet it is being implemented at the county level.
Nyeri being a pilot county, he said, it is allocating Sh2.8 billion of its resources towards UHC while the national government is only imputing Sh780 million.
It is clear, he added, that counties are carrying the burden of implementation of UHC and other government programmes including the Big Four.
Following the disagreement, Kahiga said, counties have no idea on what will be allocated to them.
“But we have been using the budget policy statement from the Treasury to prepare our budget,” he said.
