•Raila said it was the responsibility to come up with a revenue sharing formula and promulgate it into law.
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@alalmaurice
The Senate stalemate on the formula to be adopted for the division of revenue to be disbursed to counties is hurting operations in the devolved units, ODM leader Raila Odinga has said.
Senators have for a record eight times deferred debate on the formula, delaying allocation and release of funds to counties.
Raila on Friday said the standoff means counties are lacking resources to perform their functions. He urged senators to expeditiously resolve the matter.
“Revenue sharing is a matter that has taken a lot of time in the Senate. I know that the standoff is interfering with service delivery in the counties,” Raila said.
Raila said it was the responsibility of the Senate to come up with a revenue sharing formula and promulgate it into law. He spoke in Kisumu on Friday when he paid a courtesy call to Governor Anyang Nyong'o.
The former Prime Minister said the Commission on Revenue Allocation had done its job and challenged senators to find a consensus.
“Senate Finance Committee had made an amendment to the new proposed formula. This is what has been before the house,” Raila said.
He added, “Several other amendments have been proposed by members of the Senate but so far there has been no kind of consensus. I have been told that negotiations have been ongoing to find a solution to the stalemate.”
He expressed hope the Senate will come up with a compromised solution which should be a win-win situation when they meet on Monday to deliberate on the contentious motion.
“What needs to be understood here is not equality but equity in terms of revenue share and that each and every county should get what is fairly it's unlike in the past where some counties get more than others based on unverified data,” Raila said.
With the current accurate data, he said, the senators should sober up and agree on a revenue-sharing deal. The ODM boss said no counties should be losers and that there should be a moratorium to ensure no county gets less allocation than what it got last year.
The CRA had used health, agriculture, population, and land mass in revenue sharing, he said.
Raila said the commission was ready to re-look at the proposed formula and take into consideration other factors such as mining, blue economy, livestock and wildlife.
Edited by P.O