• A lean team appointed by Speaker Kenneth Lusaka to strike a deal and prepare a compromise report has not agreed on a formula.
• The two camps are still pulling the strings towards their ends.
Fierce exchanges are expected in the Senate on Thursday morning after members failed to agree on the third basis for sharing revenue among the 47 counties.
A team appointed by Speaker Kenneth Lusaka to strike a deal and prepare a compromise report had not agreed on a formula.
The two camps were still pulling the strings towards their ends. Those whose counties will gain have vowed to aggressively fight for the adoption of the new method, while those from marginalised areas insist the status quo must remain.
Sources revealed to the Star that those whose counties gaining under the formula proposed by the Finance and Budget Committee want the method approved as it is.
The committee has proposed that the formula, that would see 18 counties lose up to Sh17 billion if adopted, be approved but its commencement date be deferred by a year.
However, senators whose counties will lose say they want the current formula to remain in force or they must be assured by the National Treasury that more cash will be allocated to the counties in the next financial year to ensure that no county loses revenue.
“Not yet, but we shall work very day and minute to reach a deal. It is never over until it is over,” Majority Chief Whip Irungu Kangata told the Star.
Minority Chief Whip Mutula Kilonzo Jr said, “No, [it's] going to the wire.”
Nominated Senator Naomi Waqo said colleagues whose counties stand to lose allocations will remain firm in opposing the new formula.
“Let us not be emotional. We should be guided by reason. The amounts some counties stand to lose are huge and it is for that reason that we will fight to have the status quo remain,” she said.
She said population should not be a major factor to consider when making the allocations but the poverty levels.
“Kiambu has good roads, good health facilities and proper roads. Any good government should consider that. We cannot keep increasing the gap,” she said.
Under the proposed formula, Garissa, Wajir, Marsabit, Isiolo, Samburu, Turkana, Tana River, West Pokot, Lamu and Mandera will collectively lose Sh17 billion.
Wajir would lose Sh2 billion, Marsabit and Mandera Sh1.9 billion each while Garissa will forgo Sh1.6 billion and Tana River Sh1.5 billion.
Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Kiambu, Nandi and Kakamega counties would get more allocations.
Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi said the Senate should strive to bring “equity and equality” in allocations to the counties.
“Some counties will still be earning far much more per capita with the new formula but their leaders are still arguing that they are losing,” he added.
Waqo said marginalised counties have major projects which will stall if they get less funding. “Senate was formed to protect devolution but what we are doing is killing it,” she argued.
The disputed third basis for sharing revenue among the 47 counties will come up for debate after three failed attempts.
At least 21 senators drawn from the arid and semi-arid counties have opposed the formula, saying it will disenfranchise and further marginalise their areas.
Some 10 county chiefs from the areas have also petitioned the national government to shelve, for one year, the implementation of a new revenue sharing formula.
Edited by Henry Makori