• Nandi Senator Cherargei threw into disarray the hopes of ending the deadlock with his 'No deal' tweet.
• The Senate has failed in nine sittings to approve the formula after lawmakers whose counties will lose money in the Finance Committee proposal rejected it.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The special Senate committee formed to hammer out a deal on the controversial revenue sharing formula is rocked by divisions a day after announcing a breakthrough.
Committee member Samson Cherargei dismissed the announcement of an agreement, throwing into disarray the hopes of ending the deadlock.
“No smoke. Not yet. Aluta continua,” the Nandi senator tweeted soon after the committee announced the breakthrough on Wednesday.
He, however, did not disclose the point of departure. Even co-chairs Moses Wetang'ula (Bungoma) and Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi) were tight-lipped on the contents of the formula they agreed on.
Cherargei is a proponent of the disputed revenue sharing formula proposed by the House Finance and Budget committee that cuts allocation to 18 counties by Sh17 billion. Nandi is the biggest gainer in the formula.
Laikipia's John Kinyua, who is also a committee member, said the panel "did not reach 100 per cent consensus".
"We did not agree 100 per cent. That is why we are taking the report to the House leadership to see if we can agree," Kinyua said. He also declined to disclose the contents of the committee report.
On Wednesday evening, the 12-member team announced a deal after eight days of intense negotiations on the third basis for sharing the national cake among the 47 devolved units.
The panel declined to disclose the contents of their formula, citing standing orders that bar disclosure.
“We will not and we are not allowed by standing orders of the House to divulge the contents of the report until it is presented to the Speaker and find its way to the House,” Wetang'ula (Bungoma) said.
He said the committee would present its determination in form of a report to the House leadership headed by Speaker Kenneth Lusaka.
“For the week and a day that we have been meeting, we have made tremendous progress. We are getting to the final bend to take the dash home, so to speak,” the Ford Kenya leader said.
Yesterday, the committee presented the report to Majority leader Samuel Poghisio (West Pokot) and his Minority counterpart James Orengo (Siaya).
The team was formed on Monday last week after a protracted standoff in the House on the formula that will determine how the counties share the Sh316.5 billion allocated to them in the 2020-21 budget.
The Senate has failed in nine sittings to approve the formula after lawmakers whose counties will lose money in the proposal rejected it.
In the dispute Finance and Budget Committee formula, 18 counties stand to lose Sh17 billion from their last year’s allocation.
Sakaja, in his brief to journalists at Parliament Building on Wednesday, said they reached a determination after considering all the proposals presented to the committee.
“We have looked at all the options that we have had before us and all of those that were proposed by our colleagues and ourselves. We are confident to say when we look at each other as one indivisible country, then a solution is nigh,” he said.
The Speaker will gazette a special sitting of the Senate next week once the house leadership endorses the committee’s report for the formula approval to end three months of push and pull.
The accepted formula will unlock the passage of County Allocation of Revenue Bill (CARA) for the sharing of Sh316.5 billion among counties.
Failure to pass CARA has placed the counties in a quagmire as they cannot to access money from the Treasury.
But the committee reiterated that the standoff in the Senate over the formula has not affected the operations of the counties after the Treasury agreed to release up to 50 per cent of the total allocation to the devolved units.
“Any stories from counties that they are truncated and incapacitated and made difficult to work because the Senate has not passed the formula are not true. They are accessing money from the Treasury and the Supreme Court ruled as such,” Wetang'ula said.
But the Attorney General has advised against the release of the money without the approval of the National Assembly. That is why Minority leader John Mbadi has come up with a motion which, if passed, will unlock 50 per cent of the funds for use by the counties.
- mwaniki fm