Governors want President Uhuru Kenyatta to urge the National Treasury to disburse Sh46 billion to devolved governments.
Council of Governors Finance Committee chairman Ndiritu Muriithi said “we were already into a new fiscal year and failure to disburse the monies was creating problems in service delivery and also in balancing of the books of accounts”.
“As COG, we are appealing to Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani to release the funds immediately. Yes, we appreciate there is tightness of liquidity but frankly, you have to do something before the matter gets out of hand,” the Laikipia Governor told a media briefing at his Nanyuki office.
While calling for President Kenyatta’s intervention, Mr Muriithi noted that Kenya was in a ‘delicate’ moment. With the General Election approaching, he said, political opponents might seek political mileage by blowing out of proportion the financial problems facing counties.
“I would go a step further and ask the Head of State to make urgent intervention,” he said.
The governor had earlier announced a sharp increase in revenue in Laikipia County, with officials saying collections had risen by 87 percent in the last seven years.
“The cumulative revenue collection has doubled compared to the revenue performance in the last seven years from Sh482,151,083 million in financial year 2015/2016 to Sh903,887,923 million in the financial year 2021/2022, representing a growth of 87 percent,” said a report released by Laikipia Revenue Board CEO Prudence Waithira.
The document showed that revenues had risen from Sh608 million in 2016 to Sh804 million in 2021.
Ms Waithira attributed the impressive rise in Laikipia’s own-source revenues to internal departmental changes and new strategies, including digitisation to avoid cash transactions.
That growth “has transformed into various development projects in the county, including and not limited to upgrading and rebranding of the Laikipia Health Service, the Smart Towns Initiatives in Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Rumuruti, Oljabet [and] Kinamba and the ongoing projects on roads upgrading”, she said. BY DAILY NATION