A fresh dispute has emerged in Parliament after the National Assembly rejected Senate amendments to the Division of Revenue Bill (No. 10 of 2025).
During the Tuesday’s sitting, MPs shot down the Senate’s proposal to increase county allocations from Sh405 billion to Sh465 billion for the 2025/26 financial year.
Lawmakers argued that the proposed Sh60 billion hike was not financially viable.
Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah who led the opposition to the changes cited the country’s tight fiscal position and a significant deviation from the figures originally passed by the National Assembly.
“This Division of Revenue Bill approved by the House had about Sh405 billion and the Senate amended that to about Sh465 billion. That is an increase of about Sh65 billion above what is agreed and bearing in mind the fiscal space of the country, it may not be practical to increase,” Ichung’wah said.
He added that an early mediation would help resolve the standoff and ensure timely passage of the Bill.
“I therefore urge this House to reject in totality this proposal by the Senate,” he said.
The Senate proposed a new schedule for revenue allocation for the 2025/26 financial year, increasing the county governments’ equitable share from the National Treasury.
The amendment raised the proposed allocation to counties to Sh465.001 billion, up from the Sh405 billion previously passed by the National Assembly.
With the rejection of the Senate amendments, the Division of Revenue Bill now proceeds to a mediation committee, as provided for under Article 113 of the Constitution.
The mediation committee will comprise members from both Houses and will be tasked with reconciling the differences to avoid delays in the budgeting process.
The outcome of the mediation will determine how much funding counties receive and whether the national budget remains on track for timely implementation.
This is not the first time that the two Houses have differed over the allocation to the devolved units.
During the 2024/25 financial year, the National Assembly rejected a proposal by the Senate to have the county governments’ equitable share increased by Sh24.84 billion to Sh415.95 billion.
“We were working with a budget of approximately Sh4.1 trillion. After the passage of the BPS, we have been able to slash about Sh270 billion, and therefore, the budget we are dealing with now is approximately Sh3.913 trillion. Whereas we appropriated a ceiling of Sh391 billion, even after we slashed the expenditure by the National Government, we still let the county governments’ allocation persist in the current consideration," the then Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson Ndindi Nyoro said.
