• Nairobi has maintained its position as the highest revenue receiver with Sh15.9 billion.
• Lamu county will receive the least amount of Sh2.59billion, followed by Elgeyo Marakwet Sh3.86 billion
Image: ENOS TECHE
Nairobi, Turkana, Nakuru, Kilifi and Kakamega will receive the biggest allocation of the Sh316 billion disbursed to counties this financial year.
They are closely followed by Kiambu, Bungoma, Kitui, Narok and Meru.
The County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2019, (CARA) which was introduced and passed in the Senate sitting in Kitui on Tuesday, shows that Mike Sonko's Nairobi will receive Sh15.9 billion.
Turkana will receive Sh10.5 billion, Nakuru Sh10.47 billion, Kilifi Sh10.44 billion, Kakamega Sh10.42 billion, Kiambu Sh9.43 billion and Bungoma Sh8.89 billion.
The Bill, however, shows that Mombasa will be the biggest loser this year. The county will receive Sh7 billion down from Sh8.2 billion last year. Kisumu will receive Sh6.8 billion.
Senate Finance and Budget Committee chairman Mohamed Mahamud introduced the Bill dividing the Sh316 billion passed in the Division of Revenue Bill and signed into law by the President yesterday.
The Sh316 billion shareable revenue is Sh2.5 billion more than the Sh314 billion allocated to counties last financial year.
Lamu county will receive the least amount of Sh2.59billion, followed by Elgeyo Marakwet Sh3.86 billion, Tharaka Nithi, Laikipia and Taita Taveta will receive Sh3.92 billion, Sh4.17 billion and Sh4.24billion respectively.
Besides the Sh316 billion shareable revenue, the counties will also get Sh22.8 billion as conditional grants and Sh39.08 billion as conditional allocations from loans and grants from development partners thus pushing the total allocation to Sh378 billion.
The conditional allocations include Sh6.2 billion for leasing of medical equipment, Sh4.3 billion for Level 5 hospitals, compensation for the user fee forgone Sh900 million and Sh485.1 million supplement for the construction of county headquarters,
Others are Sh200 million for the rehabilitation of the youth polytechnics and Sh8.9 billion for the roads maintenance fuel levy.
The Bill further proposes budget ceilings on recurrent expenditure in the financial year 2019-2020 for county executive and assemblies as Sh26.7 billion and Sh33.2 billion respectively.
Mahamud said the equitable share of the 316.5 billion is distributed using the six parameters of population (Sh142.42 billion), equal share (Sh82.29 billion), poverty (Sh56.97 billion), land (Sh25.32 billion), fiscal responsibility (Sh6.33 billion) and development factor at (Sh3.16 billion).
Isiolo, Taita Taveta and Kirinyaga counties have the same allocation of Sh4.24 billion, while Kisii and Kwale get Sh7.78 billion.
Also, Meru and Narok counties will each Sh8.03 billion, as Marsabit and Migori counties get Sh6.7 billion respectively. The counties will also receive total loans and grants of Sh39.089 billion.
Senators are also proposing that the CARB Bill be amended to reflect that the disbursement of monies allocated to counties in the financial year 2019-2020 is effective from July 1, 2019.
“Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1, the National Treasury shall transfer to the counties the total disbursement due in the first quarter of the financial year 2019-2020 within seven days of the approval of the schedule by the Senate,” reads part of the Bill.
(edited by O. Owino0