Cabinet directs Treasury to release Ksh10B to counties for disaster management
By Wycliffe Nyamasege, November 27, 2023
The Cabinet has directed the National Treasury to release Ksh10 billion to counties for disaster management, including flood mitigation.
In a despatch from a Cabinet meeting chaired by President William Ruto on Monday, November 27, State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said the Ksh10 billion will be released this week as part of the counties’ shareable revenue.
Mohamed noted that the money is an addition to Ksh10 billion released to governors last week.
“The Cabinet observed that to support County Governments in addressing the disaster situations in their respective areas, the National Treasury last week disbursed Ksh10 billion of their shareable revenue.
“Cabinet directed the National Treasury to release an additional Ksh10 billion to County Governments this week,” the communique read in part.
Governors clash with Gachagua over El Nino funds
The directive comes days after governors differed with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over funds to mitigate the effects of ongoing El Nino rains.
In a press conference on Wednesday, November 22, the Council of Governors (COG) denied receiving any funds from the national government to mitigate the impact of El Nino rains.
CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru said that contrary to Gachagua’s assertion that Ksh10 billion had been released to the devolved units, no county had received any money from the national government.
“We note with concern public utterances that suggest county governments have received funds from the national government to support the mitigation of the devastating impact of El Nino rains,” Waiguru said.
“We take the position that such utterances are against the spirit of cooperative and collaborative governments as envisioned under the provisions of Article 6(2) of the Constitution.”
Meanwhile, the Cabinet on Monday revealed that 38 out of 47 counties were within the alarm stage of El Nino.
The Cabinet further noted that at least 76 Kenyans have been killed by the ongoing El Nino rains that continue to wreak havoc across the country. Additionally, 35,000 households have been displaced by floods.
The Cabinet also noted that the government has allocated Ksh7 billion to address the effects of the rains.
“The funds were appropriated by Parliament under the Contingencies Fund as part of the FY2023/24 budget and Supplementary Appropriations No. I of FY 2023/24,” Mohamed said.
The funds will be used for humanitarian response, including the distribution and supply of medical commodities, food and non-food items, rehabilitation of infrastructure and resettlement of displaced families.
The Cabinet also established an ad hoc Cabinet Committee on Disaster Response under the leadership of Gachagua to coordinate the State response to the effects of El Nino rains.