Members of the National Assembly and the Senate have ended a deadlock in the division of the revenue bill of 2024, following weeks of negotiations and disagreements.

The impasse which led to the formation of an inter-house mediation committee of 18 members with equal representation from both houses was resolved after the National Assembly chairperson of the Budget Appropriations Committee Ndindi Nyoro ceded his stance that no additional funds would be disbursed to counties apart from the Ksh380 billion.

“We cannot afford to give our counties less money than they received in the last financial year and we have agreed unequivocally and unanimously that our counties deserve resources and for that reason, we have reinstated the figure that they got in the last financial year of Ksh385 billion,” Nyoro said on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.

Adding; “On top of that, we have made and provisioned additional resources of Ksh2 billion to make our counties perform their duties efficiently.”

Following the agreement, counties will now receive Ksh387 billion, an increment of Ksh7 billion from the proposed budget by the National Assembly.

Inter-house mediation committee

The mediation committee which was co-chaired by Senator Ali Roba said that the funds could not be adjusted to the figure of Ksh400 billion they had earlier demanded, noting that austerity measures had affected various programmes of the government and structures as well.

The MPs had initially stood their ground and indicated that the government was not in a position to disburse more than Ksh380 billion to the 47 counties during the 2024/2025 financial year due to austerity measures occasioned by the dropping of the controversial Finance Bill 2024.

The resolution came after county governments threatened to grind to a halt if the stalemate remained unresolved following weeks of failing to achieve a consensus.

Grind to a halt

“We affirm and support the Senate’s decision to retain the county allocation at Ksh400 billion. Any reduction to county equitable share will negatively affect service delivery and grind the counties to a halt,” Council of Governors chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi said on November 18, 2024.

Things came to a head when former Prime Minister Raila Odinga waded into the matter pitting the MPs and senators who had demanded Ksh400 billion.

In his press conference, Raila castigated the National Assembly for attempting to exercise control over the resources trickling down to the county governments, yet they had control of their own kitties of the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NG-AAF) and Constituency Development Funds (NG-CDF).