MPs from the pastoralist communities have taken the county revenue formula war to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s doorstep, accusing him of behaving like a ‘regional governor’.
Responding to comments President Kenyatta made last week on the revenue formula, the leaders said Uhuru has taken sides with his gaining Mt Kenya backyard when he should champion a unifying formula.
Uhuru last week appeared to support allocation based on population, cautioning that denying Nairobi a big share in the name of ‘it being a more developed county’ will hurt slum dwellers.
“Kwa nini mwananchi wa Nairobi, eti inasemekana kwamba Nairobi ni mji tajiri, wewe ambaye unahishi Embakasi na Korogocho na bado unafunga choo kwa karatasi unaambiwa huna haki ya kupata pesa. Ukweli na haki utajitokeza (Why is it being said that Nairobi is a rich city, yet there are people in Korogocho who still use flying toilets. Don’t they have a right to the money. The truth will come out,” Uhuru said as he distributed land titles in Embakasi.
But MPs Ahmed Kolosh (Wajir West), Alois Lentoimaga (Samburu North), Marselino Arbelle (Laisamis), Abdullah Bashir (Mandera North) and EALA legislator Fatuma Ali said population should not be the only parameter for sharing cash among the counties.
They said the President has done little to protect counties that have been marginalised for years and that siding with his populous Mt Kenya in the current debate raises questions on his commitment to serve Kenyans equally.
“We knew this was coming after they announced the census results; they have rigged the census results. That is why they cannot open the server,” Kolosh said.
“As MP, I cannot be a super county head of one of the wards, I must be the member who represents the constituency. We want to appeal to President Uhuru to think of Kenya and not double as the regional governor — that is my personal opinion — of a certain region,” Kolosh added.
Ali, who is the former Wajir Woman Representative faulted Uhuru’s Jubilee administration for failing devolution in the country.
“I was in Bomas when we were making this Constitution and the principle was to devolve more resources. This national government is failing in devolving more resource to the counties and his Excellency the President is not helping the country for devolution to grow,” Ali said.
“Kenya is not only a state based on population, Kenya is a state based on population and geographical size. So now they are finding land size to be useless?” she asked.
Bashir said Central Kenya has never been supportive of any process taking resources to marginalised areas of the country.
“We have been taken down history lane about the Bomas draft, and we are also aware in Bomas draft that Mt Kenya delegates walked away simply because it was talking about things to do with devolution. They haven’t started this issue of not being keen on devolution now, it started during Bomas draft,” he said.
Pastoralists Parliamentary Group chairman Lentoimaga urged senators to ensure no county losses a shilling, noting that the region will be negatively affected if their budget is slashed.
“For us who come from those regions, we believe devolution is our independence and when you go back to talk about reduction, it is very unfair,” the Samburu North MP said.