In Summary
  • The DG said it was unfortunate that National Assembly has become the biggest threat to devolution.
  • He called for a review of the formula for sharing national revenue between the two levels of government saying counties are being disadvantaged.

Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi has lashed out at Parliament for continuing to allocate more resources to ministries whose functions have been devolved. 

The deputy county boss regretted that members of parliament have failed in protecting and safeguarding the interests of county government through financial starvation.

"How can Parliament be allocating resources to ministries and departments yet those functions have been devolved," Mwangangi during a Thursday morning interview with K24 TV posed. 

The DG said it was unfortunate that the National Assembly, which processes money bills and the national budget, has become the biggest threat to devolution.

He also said the Senate, the principal defender of devolution under the constitution, is doing nothing to fight for resources for counties.

"It is even worrying that the defenders of devolution are not with county governments in pushing for resources to the devolved units,'' he said.

"So far I have not seen much to strengthen devolution by the current parliament.''

The deputy governor also called for a review of the formula for sharing national revenue between the two levels of government saying counties are being disadvantaged.

Mwangangi said while the government is using the current revenue collection for its budget projections, it is using the last audited accounts to allocate funds to counties.

"The counties will get Sh385 billion out of the proposed budget of Sh3.6 billion, which translates to about 9 per cent of the current revenue collected by the national government,'' he said. 

Mwangangi called for constitutional changes to make sure that the National Treasury is managed by elected leaders to ensure equity and fairness in resource disbursement.

"There is need to make changes to the constitution through a referendum so that the National Treasury is not in the hands of any particular government...instead we elect people to go there so that we can have fairness and development in every corner of this country," he said.

At the same time, the deputy government censured the government's approach in dealing with corruption and dishing out state appointments saying those from certain communities are being spared.

"Howe come that those related to those in power are being spared while others are being removed from office?" Mwangangi posed. By James Mbaka, The Star