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Governors challenged on prudent use of funds allocated to devolved units

Governors challenged on prudent use of funds allocated to devolved units
Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu during a previous event. PHOTO/HonNyutu/X

Muranga Senator Joe Nyutu has challenged governors to ensure strict and frugal use of money allocated to the devolved units.

Speaking during the deliberations on the county allocation of revenue bills in the Senate on Friday, June 27, 2025, Nyutu warned the county bosses over the tendency to channel the funds to functions not intended to benefit the counties and the citizens.

This comes after members of Parliament (MPs) and senators reached a consensus on a Ksh415 billion allocation as the shareable revenue allocation to the counties in the financial year 2025/2026.

Development

“We must tell governors who think that when this amount is sent to them, they can expend it on purposes other than those to serve the people they represent.

“We must tell our governors, the 47 of them, that the amounts must be used more on development and not on the wage bill and other unnecessary matters. We have no county abiding by maintaining a wage bill at 35 percent of their total resources,” he stated.

Nyutu also called for governors to prioritise development projects in counties with the funds rather than wage bills.

 “These governors must be able to invest in development and look at pending bills and clear those they owe for development and progress to take place in counties,” he added.

The senators also urged the NA to abide by a disbursement schedule adopted by the House.

Division of Revenue Mediation Panel co-chairs Mandera Senator Ali Roba Ali and Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi. PHOTO/Kenna Claude

“We have been having challenges with counties not because we have not allocated an amount that can help them, but because of delayed distribution, so that they are made with a schedule we come up with,” he stated.

His remarks follow after Mandera Senator Abdi Roba, while speaking on the subject, revealed that the ongoing unrest occasioned by the Gen Zs’ demonstration is adversely impacting the push for more allocations to the counties.

Unrest hurting counties

“Even as the Senate tries to push for more money. The Senate is in an awkward position in terms of pushing more money for counties,” he stated.

“The reality of government performance in terms of fiscal space for collecting money to be shared vertically between two levels of government is getting worse. The committee has done its best to push for 415 billion, which is 28 billion more than that of last year,” the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget revealed.

While addressing the happenings of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, the protest that marked the first anniversary of the killings of the young people killed during the 2024 anti-finance bill, the senator decried being hijacked by hooligans.

“Looking at what is happening in our country. Last year, there was a demonstration that was genuinely Gen Z. This year, it was packaged differently into organised crime. A lot of agitation in our country in the name of sponsored hooliganism will go a long way in reducing the performance of the counties and spoiling the country’s image and destruction of property,” he lamented.

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