National Treasury to Disburse Ksh 77.4Bn to County Governments

President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the County Allocation of Revenue Amendment Bill paving way for the National Treasury to disburse Ksh 77.4Bn funds to County Governments.

Data in the first four months of the current financial year (July – October period) indicate Ksh 35.37Bn was disbursed to the devolved governments against a possible pro-rated KSh 109.99Bn total disbursement as at October.

According to a recent Kenya Gazette notice Mandera, Kitui, Makueni, Baringo, Nakuru, Kisii, Nyamira and Nyeri had not been allocated their share of the KSh302 billion for the year to June next year.

The new Act of Parliament sets out accurately the conditional allocations to county governments from loans and grants thereby aligning the County Allocation of Revenue Act, 2017 to the provisions of the Division of Revenue Act, 2017.

The amendment by the Senate was necessitated as the initial schedule sent to the National Treasury differed from the Third Schedule of County Allocation Revenue Act.

The county governments have been heavily reliant on national government disbursements (84.69 percent of their revenue in FY13/14 – FY16/17) bringing to the fore necessity of increasing own-source revenue according to Genghis Capital Analysts.
President Kenyatta said the disbursement of funds will now enable county governments to undertake their responsibilities and deliver on their mandate.

“The national government is committed in ensuring devolution succeeds and will continue to facilitate county governments to deliver on their mandate,” said the President.

Present during the signing of the Bill were the Deputy President William Ruto, Head of Public Service and Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua, Speaker of National Assembly Justin Muturi and his senate counterpart Kenneth Lusaka, Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale and Majority Leader in the Senate Kipchumba Murkomen.

Additional information from PSCU