It took the intervention of MPs and religious leaders had to pray for the Kitui county 2019-20 budget to be passed by the assembly, the Star has established.
Multiple sources said the Sh11.3 billion budget passed on Thursday last week, five months late, was a tough nut to crack.
The executive led by Governor Charity Ngilu has often been at loggerheads with MCAs causing the delay in the passage of the budget. The stalemate ended after the budget was reviewed downwards by Sh200 million.
“We sought the intervention of church leaders, MPs and senior Kitui leaders to find a breakthrough,” an MCA said.
Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Boniface Kilaa Kasina said it was a hard task to get the budget passed but denied having interacted with external leaders in formulating the budget.
“It is true that that it was hard to come to an agreement between the assembly and the executive on the budget and at some point, both parties had to cede ground as part of horse-trading,” Kilaa told the Star on Wednesday.
He said the assembly had declined to pass the budget because Ngilu had not agreed to a Sh40 million development kitty for each of the 40 wards. The MCAs refused to allocate funds to the governor's key projects in reciprocation.
“When the governor finally agreed to the proposed Sh40 million development kitty, MCAs also softened their stance and we agreed to allocate money to Kicotec and the stone crushing projects. It was a give and take scenario,” Kiala said.
The budget unanimously passed on Thursday was a downgraded version of a contentious Sh11.5 billion estimates that was initially approved by the assembly on June 28. Ngilu rejected the previous estimates.
While presenting the budget estimates to the assembly on Thursday, Kilaa said its revision could not be avoided.
“The revision was necessitated by the fact that the initial budget submitted and considered by the assembly was done before approval of the Division of Revenue Bill."
edited by peter obuya
