Kisii Senator Sam Ongeri on Wednesday came under fire for voting against amendments to the counties' revenue sharing formula.
Woman Rep Janet Ong’era said she was unhappy to see Ongeri support his colleagues in shooting down the formula.
Addressing the press in her Kisii town office, Ong’era said she respects Ongeri as an elder but sharply differed with him on principle.
“I was saddened to see Senator Sam Ongeri vote no during the debate on the counties’ revenue sharing formula,” Ong’era said.
She said if the formula was approved, Kisii county would benefit from Sh126 million to be used to improve peoples’ livelihoods.
However, ODM treasurer Timothy Bosire said while Ong'era could have been right, her view of the whole issue was from a narrow angle.
“I would like to correct my sister that she did not see the bigger picture. The net loss for the Kisii community would have been Sh750 million if the formula was approved,” the ex-Kitutu Masaba MP said.
“We now have a positive gain of Sh375 million as a community. I thank the two senators of Kisii and Nyamira for a job well done,” he added.
On Tuesday, senators defied days of lobbying by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga and proceeded to push for changes to the Finance committee report.
Ong’era said that devolution was aimed at allocating money to the grassroots level to benefit people, adding that densely populated areas would not benefit.
The MP said that the county stood to benefit from Sh423 million if the amendments by CRA were approved.
Ong’era noted that they were elected to fight for the interests of Kisii people and not for those of their neighbours.
“When we were elected as representatives of the people our first assignment was to fight for the interests of Kisii county residents. What the senator did was wrong,” she said.
Some senators built caucuses to lobby for the far-reaching amendments to the report by the committee after failing to build consensus with Uhuru and Raila.
Ong’era disagreed with Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kang'ata who warned that should the Bill fail to pass, he would mobilise other senators affiliated to Jubilee Party to reject the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). He said that there was a need for one-man-one-vote-one-shilling formula.
Ong’era said the formula would see counties get more resources for development.
Edited by Henry Makori
