First of all, the Council of Governors will hold a meeting on Tuesday (today) over the unilateral decision by the National Treasury to cut allocation to counties by Sh46 billion.
The way the National Treasury arrived at the verdict to chop the allocations to counties without any consultations is in bad faith and meant to cripple operations in counties.
The Treasury cannot go ahead to propose amendments to the County Allocation of Revenue Bill without any consultation whatsoever.
County governments have come a long way fighting for devolution because of the erratic flow of cash from the national government.
Our meeting on Tuesday will discuss these proposed amendments by the National Treasury to the County Allocation of Revenue Bill so that as the Council of Governors we can take a position.
We shall appeal to Parliament not to agree to the proposal by the National Treasury to slash money meant for devolved units at a time when counties are worst hit by lack of resources.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the national government does not appreciate the role counties are playing in the campaign to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is so frustrating when counties make sacrifices to support efforts by the national government but end up being denied funds, yet our revenue streams have been hit badly by the pandemic.
It is totally unfair for the national government to come up with decisions that disrupt service delivery in counties even when they know, very well, that counties will not be able to raise projected revenues.
In a scenario where counties are projecting a dip in own revenue collection, the least we expected from the national government would be to cut our share of allocation.
Just to illustrate how bad the situation is, Kakamega county alone has revised its revenue target from Sh2.4 billion to Sh1.6 billion, following the decision to close open-air markets.
We have been forced to suspend the implementation of key projects we had budgeted for to focus on the pandemic, but our contribution is not being appreciated by the national government.
The Council of governors chairman spoke to the Star.
