Controversy over the disbursement of county allocations has deepened after the Council of Governors (CoG) dismissed claims by Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi that all their dues have been released. 

The Governors described Mbadi’s claims as misleading and maintained that counties are still grappling with a biting cash crunch. CoG Finance and Economic Planning Committee Chairman Fernandes Barasa said the counties are yet to receive September allocations. 

“I want to tell Mbadi that he should stop misleading Kenyans. You know very well when money is released from the National Treasury to the County Revenue Fund through the Central Bank of Kenya and it takes a minimum of two weeks for counties to get money,” said Barasa.

“We have a lot of bureaucracy and inefficiency at the office of the Controller of Budget. The arrears for September was repealed last week and it has yet to reach the designated projects accounts.” 

The Kakamega Governor added that they were pushing for reforms in the Office of the Controller of Budget, saying money released to the County Revenue Fund “must reflect within 48 hours and not two weeks.”

Barasa maintained that governors would not accept the push by MPs to slash their funds. “We want to tell our lawmakers that counties need money so that they can finance their development projects and uplift the lives of their people and as Governors our stand is clear that we want Sh400 billion from the Exchequer as opposed to Sh380 billion being pushed by MPs,” he said.

Barasa lauded ODM Leader Raila Odinga for standing with the Governors and urged Senators to remain firm.

On Monday, CS Mbadi said the ministry had fully disbursed the funds to counties except for the current month. The ministry also shared documents that indicated it disbursed Sh30.8 billion in June and Sh32.7 billion in July, Sh30.8 billion and Sh32.7 billion in August and September respectively.

Some Sh30.8 million meant for October is currently in process, according to the document shared by the National Treasury.

On Friday, Raila accused MPs of undermining devolution by encroaching on the responsibilities of county governments. 

Speaking at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi, Raila urged the National Assembly and the Senate to resolve their standoff over an additional Sh20 billion in shareable revenue for counties. By Bernard Lusigi, The Standard