The Senate is set to resume its sittings today after two months recess with Senators allied to the opposition vowing to protect gains made in devolution in the last 10 years which they are accusing Kenya Kwanza administration of attempting to claw back.
The opposition allied Senators cited the Primary Health Care and Housing as some of the devolved functions which the national government has shown interest of taking over yet they are devolved functions saying that if this is allowed it might take over more functions.
Senators allied to Azimio La Umoja have vowed to take the National Treasury and Commission on Revenue Allocation to task over failure to allocate counties Sh 450 billion shareable revenue with Treasury recommending they get Sh 391 billion while CRA recommends Sh 398 billion.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said Senators are deeply concerned about stalled projects across counties and that they will be holding respective Governors to account since it was unfair to have public funds going to waste in projects that could have been beneficial to citizens if completed.
“The Senate will be having a busy year where as members of the Azimio coalition we are going to play our role in ensuring that we keep the Kenya Kwanza administration in check since so far it has not delivered on the promises made to Kenyans,” said Sifuna.
The Nairobi Senator said that they Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority(EPRA) will be summoned to appear before the Senate Energy Committee to give an account of all sites where Gas filling sites are situated in the country and on whether safety measures have been adhered to.
Senate Minority Whip Ledama ole Kina said the office of the Auditor General should carry out an annual counties budget audit since it has constantly been focusing on auditing Financial statements and that there was need for it to work closely with the office of Controller of Budget.
Ledama said they will oppose plans to have one uniform system of collecting revenue since there are two tiers of governments so as to avoid unnecessary conflict instead counties should be assisted to make a good collection of their money and make proper use rather than being micromanaged.
“Counties are now raising levies yet they do not have a basis for doing that, the County Assemblies should operate within the law, there is need to work with the Commission on Revenue Allocation to look at the basis so as to ensure that they adhere to the law,” said Ledama.
The Narok Senator said there are several key areas of accountability in counties where they have found that governors focus on development in one budget which makes the County Integrated Development Plans irrelevant as they use it for the next five year without achieving much. By Edwin Nyarangi, The Standard
