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The standoff over the division of revenue has taken a new twist with allies of President William Ruto and his political nemesis Raila Odinga clashing on the amount that should be allocated to counties.

While Ruto’s lieutenants want the National Treasury to disburse Sh385.4 billion, Raila’s allies are demanding Sh407 billion in the 2023-24 Financial Year.

Treasury has proposed an allocation of Sh385.4 billion to the counties from the current Sh370 billion.

National Assembly has supported Treasury and approved the proposal as captured in the Division of Revenue Bill, 2023 that proposes a Sh385.4 billion.

In the Bill, the devolved units have been allocated Sh385 billion with the National government getting a whopping Sh2.17 trillion and Sh8.36 billion going to marginalised counties as equalisation fund.

The proposed allocation, according to Treasury, represents 24.5 per cent of the last audited and approved accounts of Sh1.57 trillion for the 2019-20 Financial Year. However, the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has proposed an allocation of Sh407 billion.

CRA is mandated to recommend a formula for the equitable sharing of nationally raised revenues between the national and county governments.

In addition, the Senate’s Finance and Budget Committee has endorsed an allocation of Sh407 billion.

Azimio senators clashed with their Kenya Kwanza counterparts, accusing them of being driven by political considerations rather than their constitutional mandate to defend devolution. “Let us do what we were elected to do. It is painful to hear senators who I know their counties require more resources because of political expediency coming here to argue that the Sh385 billion proposed is enough,” Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said.

Marginalised areas

Sifuna further charged that there are senators from marginalised areas who would be pushing for more allocation but have abdicated their role and instead supporting the Executive, which he argued, is stifling the counties.

Ledama Olekina (Narok) termed as perplexing why counties were not being allocated more cash. “If we are to argue and be objective as to why counties should be given more money, the fist point of debate would be, what are the priorities of the current administration?” he posed.

Speaking during the debate in the chamber, Ruto’s allies argued the huge public debt and dwindling revenue collections were taking a toll on government revenues.

Ruto’s lieutenants maintained that it was high time Ken-ya lived within its means, adding that the National Treasury has not released to the counties their allocation since January.

“We need to be reasonable. We need to live within our means,” Elgeyo Marakwet Senator William Kisang said.

Kisang, a close Ruto ally, said it would be foolhardy to allocate counties Sh407 billion only for Treasury to delay or fail to release the amount on account of cash crunch.

“In the current Financial Year, we allocated (the counties) Sh370 billion. [But] up to now, for the last four months; January, February, March and April, Treasury has not released the cash as per the schedule debt.”

Samson Cherargei (Nandi) while throwing a jab at the Azimio leadership charged that the National Treasury cannot allocate more funds to counties yet some of their colleagues were calling for mass actions.