• Governor Mandago initially rejected MCAs demand to control 40 per cent of development funds and offered them 15 per cent.
• Speaker David Kiplagat says the bill will automatically become law in the county even if Mandago does not sign it within seven days.
Uasin Gishu MCAs will now control 40 per cent of development funds after they they voted to force Governor Jackson Mandago to assent to a controversial funds sharing law.
Mandago had refused to assent to the Equitable Ward Development Bill 2019, which allows MCAs to control Sh1.5 billion, out of the Sh4 billion development funds.
The MCAs want each of the 30 wards to get an equal Sh43 million for development projects every year.
Initially, the county boss returned the bill to the assembly with a memorandum offering 15 per cent to the ward reps but the MCAs instead rejected the offer and voted almost unanimously for the Bill, which will be returned to the governor for the second time.
Mandago is required to sign the bill into law within seven days failure to which it will automatically become law.
“We will not allow the executive to re-write our own bill and offer us what we did not ask for. We want the bill signed as it is,” said MCA Jonathan Ng’etich, chairman of the budget committee at the assembly.
Ngetich said Mandago’s offer of 15 per cent would not make any difference in terms of economic growth in the wards.
Previously, Mandago’s executive has been controlling the entire county budget, deciding which projects to finance in the wards.
But the MCAs felt some wards were sidelined in the sharing of county funds and projects.
Langas MCA Francis Muya, while seconding the bill, said the Equitable Ward Development Bill was way behind time and should have been implemented in the first assembly.
Nominated MCA Marry Gorretti, said the bill would empower women to benefit from development money.
The assembly went into a vote as required by law since two thirds of the members must vote to overturn a governor’s memoranda.
During the vote 40 MCAs out of 47 voted to have the bill returned to the governor thus automatically making it a law in the county.
Speaker of the assembly David Kiplagat said the Equitable Development Bill would be returned to the governor for assent and it in its original format and that it will become law automatically after seven days according to County Government Act.