• Two versions of the bill at centre of dispute between Senators and MPs has been published by the two Houses
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The Senate’s Division of Revenue Bill, 2019, has been referred to the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee for consideration.
Eyes will now be cast on how the committee chaired by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa will tackle the bill whose stalemate has caused a cash crisis in county governments.
The team chaired by Kkikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa will look into the bill after it is taken through the First Reading in the National Assembly on Tuesday next week.
Speaker Justin Muturi on Thursday directed the committee to look into the bill and advise the House on how it would be treated.
Senate on Tuesday considered and passed the bill which proposes that counties be allocated Sh335 billion as a share of revenue from the national government.
“I direct that the bill be scheduled for first reading at the next sitting of this House,” Muturi said.
The budget team is also considering a fresh Division of Revenue Bill (No2), 2019, which was published following the collapse of the mediation process the first bill was subjected to.
On May 7, Senators voted to increase the allocation to counties by Sh25 billion, setting up the clash with the National Assembly over the legislation on sharing of revenue between two levels of government.
The Senate had amended the schedule to the bill by decreasing the amount of the revenue raised nationally to be allocated to the national government and increased the total county allocations from Sh371.6 billion to Sh391 billion.
The senators sided with the Council of Governors and the Commission on Revenue Allocation on the increased allocation while the MPs endorsed figures provided by the National Treasury.
While tabling the National Assembly’s bill on Tuesday, Ichung’wa said the other from the Senate should be "treated as a piece of paper."
Edited by Peter Obuya