- Shahbal says MPs are obsessed with the 15 per cent that comes to the counties but not the 85 per cent retained by the national government.
- Shabhal said the noise about the revenue sharing formula, which he labelled as a sideshow, is a distraction.
Coast politician Suleiman Shahbal has challenged the region's MPs to push for more funds from the Exchequer than the 15 per cent the counties get.
He said Coast offers more to the national government but gets less in return and this should change.
“But our MPs are so obsessed with the 15 per cent that comes to the counties. What share should the Coast get from the other 85 per cent? That is where the focus should be,” Shahbal said.
Speaking on Monday in Mombasa, Shahbal, who is eying the Mombasa governor's seat in 2022, said parliamentarians from the Coast are expending their energies in the wrong place.
The National Assembly is in charge of the budget process and that is where crucial decisions on funds are made.
It is where Coast MPs should be fighting for the region to get more, he said.
The national government controls trillions of shillings and as such, energies should put on trying to get a fair share of the money.
Shabhal said the noise about the revenue sharing formula, which he labelled as a sideshow, is a distraction.
“I think our parliamentarians are focusing on the wrong issue. This 15 per cent is a sideshow. Where does the remaining 85 per cent go? How much of that are we, as Coast counties, getting?
“Where are our parliamentarians when this is being negotiated in Parliament? The senators have done their bit in fighting for what is ours,” Shahbal said.
More projects should be channelled to the Coast region and more money should accompany them, he noted.
The Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, for example, is a project that should have been finished a long time ago but there was no one to push it, Shahbal said.
He said the project was last year allocated Sh3 billion, almost the same as the Naivasha dry port, which is a recent project.
The Dongo Kundu was mooted more than a decade ago.
“These sideshows about forming another party and all that are unnecessary. Focus should be on the bigger picture. What really matters is the allocation of national resources and how much we, as a major contributor, should be getting,” Shahbal said.
Edited by Henry Makori