• CS Ukur Yatani has called for an emergency meeting to discuss modalities of financing counties.
• A revenue-sharing formula is deadlocked in the Senate.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Senate leadership, the Treasury and other devolution players are Monday holding a crunch meeting aimed at allowing counties access to 50 per cent of cash allocated to them.
This follows the stalemate in the Senate over the third basis for sharing revenue that has plunged the devolved units into a cash crisis.
The meeting comes as lobbying for and against the disputed revenue sharing formula intensified at the weekend, with each of the warring factions raiding each other in the battle for numbers.
The contentious formula proposed by the Senate Finance and Budget Committee has divided the senators along ‘losers and gainers’, with those whose counties are set to lose revenue opposing it.
Some 18 counties will lose Sh17 billion if the Senate adopts the formula for use in sharing the Sh316.5 billion allocated to them in the 2020-21 financial year.
The losing counties are from the less populous regions of the Coast, Northeastern, lower Eastern and parts of Rift Valley.
Treasury CS Ukur Yatani has convened the emergency virtual meeting to come up with ways of releasing funds to the counties as the senators build consensus on the formula.
The revenue formula deadlock has stalled the passage of County Allocation of Revenue Bill and the cash disbursement schedule to allow the counties to access funds.
The two were supposed to be passed by June 30 to allow for disbursements of August cash by July 15 to enable the counties to pay salaries and perform other functions.
Speaker Kenneth Lusaka will lead the Senate in the meeting that will be attended by Yatani, Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango and Attorney General Kihara Kariuki.
Also to attend are Samuel Poghisio (Majority leader), James Orengo (Minority leader), Irungu Kang'ata (Majority chief whip), Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Minority chief whip) and Charles Kibiru (chairman, Finance and Budget Committee).
“We are meeting to allow the Treasury to release 50 per cent of revenue to counties so they can continue operating,” Kibiru told the Star on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the debate on the formula proposed by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja will resume on the floor before the lawmakers take a vote.
Deputy Speaker Margaret Kamar adjourned the debate last Tuesday after a five-hour debate that saw the senators reject an amendment fronted by Kang'ata to defer the committee formula by two years.
Sakaja, in his proposal, is overhauling the disputed formula proposed by the committee to ensure no county gets less revenue than the amount they received in the last financial year.
The Star established that lobbying for the committee formula and Sakaja’s proposal intensified at the weekend. The target, according to sources, was to win over the hearts and souls of seven senators who have opposed the committee formula despite their counties gaining millions of shillings.
They are Sakaja, Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet), Sam Ongeri (Kisii), Anuar Loitiptip (Lamu), Cleophas Malala (Kakamega), Philip Mpaayei (Kajiado) and Boniface Kabaka (Machakos).
“Lobbying is at top gear. Many who voted no have been approached. I cannot disclose but I am aware of the details,” said Mutula, one of those opposed to the committee formula.
Kang'ata, who is leading proponents of the committee, declined to comment on the matter, only saying, “This week I'm not commenting, kindly.”