The Big 4 Agenda Will Easily Be Realized If Counties Got More Funds and Have Fiscal Discipline – Governor Wangamati

When President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected for the second term in office, he vowed to leave a legacy and with this in mind, his government developed what he termed the Big 4 Agenda.

According to the government, the Big 4 Agenda is set to include the following:

1. Manufacturing
2. Affordable housing
3. Universal health coverage
4. Food security

As the days pass by, some quarters have started casting doubts in the agenda over its implementation is given that the government seems not to have a visible plan that has taken off. The manufacturing sector is still clouded with challenges with the government still considering whether to include private players.

The government aims to construct at least 500,000 affordable housing units by the end of 2022. The initiative is yet to start with the planned launch in Nairobi put on hold by the court.

The universal health coverage program is already at the piloting stages in some counties but inadequate equipment, personnel as well as lack of medicine in some hospitals is threatening to bring the whole program on its knees.

In terms of food security, the government is trying but the recent tribulations facing maize farmers across the country might affect the initiative. Most farmers have threatened to abandon maize farming if the government will not assure them of a better process for their produce.

Fiscal Discipline

Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati has some good ideas that might help the central government achieve the whole of Big 4 Agenda with a lot of ease. According to Governor Wangamati, there is an urgent need for fiscal discipline and prudent financial management if Kenya was to achieve the Big 4.

Governor Wangamati said there is a need at both the national Government and at the County level to manage the recurrent budget in a manner that frees more funds to finance development projects. Reiterating the President’s remarks on the opening day of the Devolution Conference, Governor Wangamati said at the recurrent expenditure as is not sustainable and “there is a need for an urgent conference on how to attain a reasonable ratio between recurrent and development budgets.”

Speaking on Kenya’s new focus, thrust and realignment of development plans, except perhaps manufacturing, Governor Wangamati said most of the Big 4 (affordable housing, universal healthcare, and food security) are devolved functions

“As Counties, we are already implementing about 70% of the Big 4 Agenda. This is why any increase in allocation to the Big 4 means a corresponding increase in allocation to the Counties,” Governor Wangamati said.

He called on the National Treasury to rethink their move to cut back on share of equitable revenue to Counties from Sh315 billion to Sh305 billion in the current financial, saying doing so will disrupt entire plans with inadvertent reallocations and realignments.

“Cutting back on the funding to Counties mid cycle will unnecessarily disrupt planning and implementation because by now, all the moneys are committed to the last penny on projects in the procurement plan,” he said.

Governor Wangamati discounted Treasury argument that the cutback has been necessitated by a shortfall in revenue collection. He said the law on funding of Counties is very clear that just the same way National Government takes any surpluses in revenue collection, so should they soak up losses in the face of deficits.

According to the Division of Revenue Bill (DoRB) 2018, the County Government’s equitable share of revenue is protected from cuts that may be necessitated by shortfall in revenue collection. According to clause 5 of the DoRB 2018, any shortfall in revenue raised nationally is to be borne by the National Government.

He was speaking in Kirinyaga as a panelist on how to finance the Big 4.

Why the Governor is Right

Almost all the listed projects under each agenda are taking in the counties. According to Governor Wangamati, 70 percent of these projects are in the counties. This means they will easily be realized if the central government worked with county government and allocate more funds for the same.