Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has convened a crucial meeting with officials from the County Assemblies Forum (CAF) to address mounting challenges facing county assemblies across the country.
The meeting, bringing together the executive committee of the forum, is scheduled for Monday afternoon at the Senate chamber.
Top on the agenda will be governance and leadership hurdles at the county level, as well as legislative priorities emerging from the 2025 Annual Legislative Summit, recently held in Nairobi.
Kingi serves as the patron of the forum.
CAF, the umbrella body representing all 47 county assemblies, has been instrumental in promoting legislative standards and inter-county collaboration since its formation in 2013.
Among the most pressing concerns has been the lack of financial independence for county assemblies and CAF’s continued lack of legal recognition, a stark contrast to bodies like the Council of Governors (CoG).
The forum recently renewed its call for financial independence and formal legal recognition in the proposed amendments to the Intergovernmental Relations Bill, 2024.
Speaking during a recent consultative session with the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Regional Development, CAF Secretary General Mwaura Chege decried the financial stranglehold county executives exert over assemblies.
“We cannot access our funds unless the executive allows it. Yet our budget is mostly operational, not for development projects. That is the autonomy we’re asking for,” said Chege.
CAF wants its budgetary allocations to come directly from the National Treasury, bypassing the Finance CEC.
The move, they argue, would free county assemblies from the financial grip of the executive and ensure smoother legislative operations.
Committee members echoed these sentiments with Mandera Woman Representative Kassim Umul Ker Sheikh, drawing from her experience as a two-term MCA, highlighting the constant financial struggles MCAs face.
“MCAs are often helpless, waiting on executives for funding. They need their operational budgets to work effectively,” she noted.
Her counterpart from Embu Pamela Njoki Njeru, described the situation as dire.
“MCAs are suffering. If they fall out with a governor or a CEC, everything stops. We need to break that cycle,” she said.
Njeru also pointed out the irony of MCAs vetting CEC Members, only to be later frustrated by the same officers.
“They are blocking Assemblies from functioning while they’re supposed to be accountable to them,” she added.
