The council of governors has called for an emergency meeting on Friday, March 20 to address issues, including budget cuts from the Treasury amounting to KSh 25 billion.
County bosses are demanding answers from the treasury regarding budget reductions, which they argue will severely impact donor-funded projects.
Among the demands from the governors is for the Senate to reject the budget cuts and push for revisions before approving the final budget.
CoG Chair and Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi also singled out the contentious Roads Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), which is a huge conflict point with Members of Parliament.
According to the governor, the only agreement reached with Members of Parliament (MPs) was to exclude the RMLF from the budget cuts since the fund is currently the subject of an ongoing court case.
The governors are adamant that counties should have access to the RMLF since road construction is within their jurisdiction. Abdullahi also argued that fuel levy, which funds road maintenance, should be equitably shared between the national and county governments.
He stated,”The Constitution recognizes only two types of roads: national trunk roads and county roads. If Kenyans are taxed at the pump for road maintenance, the funds should be fairly allocated between national and county governments.”
“If the national government wants to allocate road funds to MPs, that raises a constitutional question that Kenyans must address,” he said.
Among the grants that governors claim have been affected by budget cuts include the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) grant, the Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) grant, the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP) allocation, and the Water and Sanitation Development Project (WSDP) grant among others.
Treasury CS John Mbadi also weighed in on the impasse between governors and MPs on the Road Maintainence Levy Fund, terming it as unfortunate.
Mbadi stated,”This matter needs to be resolved so as not to affect service delivery. I would like to request the two parties to look for a way of resolving their political differences that have hindered the allocation of funds to counties since it is the wish of the national treasury seeing devolution work.”
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