Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa on Thursday urged governors to embrace dialogue over the Division of Revenue Bill.
Wamalwa said that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration was putting efforts to ensure that counties are funded for devolution to work as intended.
“I am urging the governors to embrace negotiations over the Division of Revenue Bills which stipulate how counties should be funded,” Eugene said.
He said Kenya is a democratic country and thus governors and senators had the freedom to demonstrate and move to court if necessary to achieve their goals.
The CS was speaking at Kisii Agricultural Training Centre where he laid a foundation stone for the construction of a banana processing factory.
Phase one of the factory will take Sh170 million. The European Union donated Sh110 million and the rest of the costs will be borne the county government.
Governor James Ongwae raised concerns that county governments were in limbo because of meagre funds allocated by the national government.
Eugene said that President Uhuru Kenyatta was doing what is right to strengthen devolution, and that is why he was urging the governors to continue with negotiations to find an amicable solution.
Ongwae said that all governors support the handshake but development in the counties is being derailed because of insufficient funds.
He said that it was unfair for the national government whose budget is Sh3.3 trillion to deny counties Sh330 billion.
He noted that most of the programmes in the Big Four Agenda are devolved and thus need the governors' support.
European commission team leader for macroeconomics and governance Vincent De Boer urged counties to give citizens a change in decision making.
“The EU supports devolution and that is why it funds various projects in various counties like Kisii,” De Boer said.
He said fifteen counties were already benefiting from EU support.
(edited by O. Owino)
