•Senators summoned to debate crucial legislative matters
•Two of the Bills have been passed by Parliament
A special sitting of the Senate will be held this afternoon to discuss crucial legislative matters, among them the contentious Division of the Revenue Bill.
Speaker Kenneth Lusaka said in a Kenya Gazette notice dated April 26 that the House will sit from 2.30pm.
Apart from the Division of Revenue Bill 2019, the legislators will also discuss the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2019 and Commission for Revenue Allocation recommendations on the third basis for revenue sharing among county governments for 2019/20 – 2023/24.
The first two Bills have been passed by the National Assembly.
The Division of Revenue Bill sets the sharing formula between the two levels of the government while the County Allocation of Revenue Bill outlines how the 47 devolved units will share exchequer allocations.
The senators are on a month-long recess but they have to attend the special meeting. They will reconvene on May 14 after today's special session.
Low revenue collection has returned to haunt counties in the wake of a Sh9 billion funding cut.
The situation, as captured in the Division of Revenue Bill 2019, has seen the base allocation of county governments' equitable share reduced to Sh304 billion.
However, counties have some reprieve - a Sh5.04 billion has been added to the allocation as adjustment based on the fiscal framework as well as Sh5.76 billion Equalisation Fund.
In 2018-19, the base was set at Sh314 billion which the National Treasury says it won’t meet, citing shortfalls in performance of revenue raised nationally since 2015-16.
The counties will receive Sh371 billion, being the share of revenue; conditional allocations by the national government (Sh14.16 billion), Road Maintenance Fund (Sh8.98 billion), and donor grants (Sh38.7 billion).
The allocation presents a Sh25 billion variation from the proposed allocations by the Commission on Revenue Allocation.
The commission proposed that county governments be allocated Sh335.7 billion as an unconditional fund to be shared on the basis of the latest approved formula.
The formula takes into account population (45 per cent), land area (8 per cent), poverty (18 per cent), basic equal share (26 per cent), fiscal responsibility (2 per cent) and development factor (1 per cent).
For CRA, counties were entitled to Sh314 billion in equitable share and a Sh21.7 billion adjustment for revenue growth in the financial year 2019-20.