Council of Governor’s deputy chairperson Mwangi Wa Iria is now warning of a total shutdown of the county governments due to the stalemate between the national assembly and the senate over the division of revenue bill.
The delivery of services according to Wa Iria will be affected starting today Monday), the beginning of a new financial year.
Speaking at ACK St Peters Cathedral in Kenol town on Sunday, Wa Iria called on the church to mediate talks between the senate and the national assembly to end the stalemate.
“The financial year 2019-2020 begins today at night and by now counties are confused and do not know how much they will get thanks to the stand-off between the Senate and the National Assembly and this is a big blow to devolution and service delivery to citizens who genuinely pay their taxes sine they won’t access crucial services,”
The National Assembly rejected Senate’s amendments to the 2019 Division of Revenue Bill, raising prospects of a delay in disbursing money to counties in the 2019/20 fiscal year.
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“Its unfortunate that the matter is at the verge of attracting litigations where government will be taking another arm of government in court where as both levels should be working together and complimenting each other,” Mr Iria said.
The version passed in the National Assembly had equitable shareable revenue of Sh310 billion for counties, about 30 per cent of the national government’s audited accounts as approved by the House and as provided for in the Constitution. But the Senate raised the shareable revenue to Sh335.7 billion when it considered the bill.
“The county allocation should not be left to be determined through some Kangaroo meetings but should be clearly be spelt out in the constitution since the way the things are, we may plunge the country into crisis as seen during this era where the Senate and the Parliament is in standoff,” he said.
