Council of Governors chair Ahmed Abdullahi/HANDOUTThe Council of Governors (CoG) has called out MPs over their remarks on the allocation of the Road Maintenance Levy Fund to counties.
In a statement, CoG chair Ahmed Abdullahi said the remarks made on the floor of the House were unfortunate, in bad taste, and unpatriotic.
“For clarity, the national government has been assigned national trunk roads, whereas county governments have been entrusted to manage county roads. Notably, the county governments construct and maintain the bulk of our Kenyan roads," he said.
Abdullahi said the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) is a fund that was specially established to maintain roads constructed and maintained by the two levels of government.
“As a matter of fact, county governments construct and maintain the bulk share of the road network,” he added.
He added that a Road Condition and Inventory Survey undertaken by Kenya Roads Board in 2024 indicated that county governments have developed and maintained 5,400 kilometers of tarmacked roads, an increase from 4, 200 kilometres from 2018.
He regretted that the members of the National Assembly have demonstrated benightedness by denying one level of government constitutionally entitled funds meant for maintenance of roads that they develop.
“The move amounts to a selfish attempt by the members of the National Assembly who seek to control the national government agencies that construct roads that have been constitutionally assigned to the county governments,” he stated.
Abdullahi said the National Assembly should focus on the review
and enactment of legislation in the roads sector that conform and aligns to the
Constitution 2010.
He said they include amendments to the Roads Act, 2007 to align to the Cabinet resolution to merge Kenya Rural Roads Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority as the two state corporations are undertaking county functions.
“We call upon all the stakeholders, including the Senate, civil society groups, county governments, and members of the public to hold the National Assembly to account in order for them to stop their malicious attempt that seeks to prevent counties as beneficiaries of RMLF,” he added.
