• MPs say that the money, expected to push the devolved units' national share of revenue to Sh370 billion, is not premised in law.
• They warn that the Senate relied on a promissory note, which may pose challenges in implementation.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
President Uhuru Kenyatta's additional Sh53 billion to counties might be a pipedream going by the reservations of the National Assembly Budget committee.
The committee says that the money, expected to push the devolved units' national share of revenue to Sh370 billion, is not premised in law.
President Kenyatta pledged the amount in what was deemed to have been the key to unlock the county revenue sharing stalemate in the Senate.
The Senate had failed 10 times to reach a deal on the formula until the additional amount was floated.
The Kieni MP Kanini Kega-led committee has poked holes on the allocation as one that is political and not scientific.
The team warns that the Senate relied on a promissory note, which may pose challenges to implement.
Of concern is that the provision of the additional Sh53 billion was premised on the country’s economic performance.
“The National Assembly will be guided by available resources -national interests among other factors - when deciding on the vertical sharing of revenue between the two levels of government,” the Budget and Appropriations Committee said.
Committee member John Mbadi (Suba South), who is the Minority leader, said it was wrong to legislate with a promissory note as Parliament can decide to do the opposite.
“We have not decided on the division of revenue for 2021-22 and they are putting figures. It is like the Executive has pronounced itself and that it is treated as given. Far from it, Parliament can decide otherwise,” Mbadi said.
Garissa Township MP Aden Duale said the amount that has been increased is illegal as the County Allocation of Revenue Bill can’t deviate from the Division of Revenue Bill which allocated counties Sh316.5 billion.
“Article 135 of the Constitution says if the President makes a decision, he must put it in writing and seal. The additional amounts are not anchored in law. We need to deal with the Sh316 billion in the Division of Revenue Act,” the former Leader of Majority said.
The red flag may come as a drawback to the quarters that celebrated the additional allocation.
MPs said basing the formula on the promised additional allocation is ambiguous as it is not prudent to budget in anticipation.
The new allocation is expected to be factored in the next financial year’s budget and will be the minimum counties can get until 2024-25 fiscal year.
Concerns abound that the formula has not addressed budget needs for water; fisheries – blue economy - and early childhood education.
Finance Committee chairperson Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay Woman Representative) decried there was no clarity on allocation to water yet it is central to agriculture, health, and land use.
MPs further castigated the Senate for taking inordinately long to approve the formula it received from the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) in April 2019.
“There should be clear timelines on when the revenue sharing formula should be implemented,” BAC said.
Mbadi took a swipe at his Senate colleagues, saying that even after delaying county services they ended up copy-pasting the CRA formula.
The CRA proposed basic share of 20 per cent - Health at 17 per cent, Agriculture at 10 per cent, Urban Services (5.0 per cent), poverty index (14 per cent), Land area (8.0 per cent) and population and other services at 18 per cent.
“What they have done is to remove fiscal prudence and fiscal effort – both at 2.0 per cent and added the four per cent to roads to make it 8.0 per cent,” Mbadi said.
“Why did they have to waste Kenyans’ time and cause more pain? The formula should have been done in a record one day,” the Suba South MP said.
“They put Kenyans in panic for nothing and did zero work,” the lawmaker said, further pointing out transitional issues.
Mbadi said the events are “a clear demonstration of negligence of duty and incompetence on the part of the Senate”.
Duale exonerated the senators from blame, saying it is commonplace for people to take long to agree where sharing resources is involved.
“People fight where there are resources. The Senate has not committed any crime. We can forgive them.”
MPs also pointed out that there was a need to use the current population data as the formula relied on the 2009 census.
“We have insisted on the current figures as provided by the Kenya Demographic Household Survey 2015-16 and the 2019 population census,” Kega said.
BAC warned that basing share of health on the visits to hospitals will leave some regions disenfranchised.
“What we should be discussing is whether 20 per cent is adequate to address the issue we see in counties, especially marginalised areas,” Mbadi said.
Urbanisation, which has been allocated five per cent, is still contested and so are questions on what parameters were used to decide allocations to roads.
Removal of fiscal discipline measures has been touted as eroding the gains made in bolstering accountability of county cash.
- mwaniki fm