Mr President, give me your seat for only six hours and I will rescue senators on the revenue formula stalemate
These were the words of Former Machakos senator Johnson Muthama during an interview on K24 on Tuesday.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta has the mandate to sit down with CS Treasury and senate and agree to release at least 50 per cent to allow counties to operate while senate is still debating on the remaining 50 per cent,” he said.
“Give me that seat for just six hours and it will take me only three hours to send money to the counties.”
Muthama said sitting down with the senators does not mean that he will sway them towards one opinion.
“If the Executive wanted to solve the revenue allocation stalemate they could call the senators and solve the issue but that not the case because the government is bankrupt,” he said.
The senator said instead of taking money away from the already poor counties, the government should look for money elsewhere and add money to the counties that need more money.
“All these English being used on revenue allocation is unnecessary it is simple mathematics and I put all the blame on the Executive, the President should call senators and come up with a solution,” he said.
Senators have for a record nine times deferred debate on the formula, delaying allocation and release of funds to counties.
The formula developed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation was forwarded to the Senate last year for consideration. Its variations are being deliberated on by the senators.
At the centre of the statement is whether to use population or landmass as parameters for revenue sharing, with some calling for “one man one vote one shilling”, with others citing landmass as a critical requirement and calling for equity to economically empower previously marginalised counties.
The third formula before the House will see a number of counties that had been receiving higher allocation receive less if adopted.
In this financial year, Sh316.5 billion has been allocated to the counties as per the Division of Revenue Act, 2020, which equitably allocates the revenue generated at the national level between the national and the counties.