Governors have won big after the Senate gave them the leeway to spend an additional Sh7.93 billion on recurrent expenses as MCAs cry foul.
In the new expenditure ceiling, the lawmakers have allowed the county executives to spend up to Sh33.75 billion on recurrent expenses in the current financial year.
This is compared to last year’s ceiling of Sh25.82 billion.
Meru, Kitui, Nakuru, Nairobi and Murang’a have the biggest expenditure headroom.
Meru has been allowed to spend up to Sh1.04 billion from Sh802.47 million, Kitui will spend Sh1.03 billion from Sh787.23 million, while Nakuru has been allowed to spend Sh949.69 million from Sh703.77 million.
Nairobi will spend Sh924.64 million from Sh640.18 million while Murang’a will spend Sh822.21 million from Sh633.05 million on recurrent expenses.
Kiambu will spend Sh937.94 million from Sh689.61 million and Kakamega will spend Sh954.36 million from Sh702.97 million. Migori, Nandi and Kisii will spend Sh803.30 million, Sh829.61 million and Sh842.93 million, respectively.
However, the senators reduced the recurrent expenditure ceiling for county assemblies by Sh4.24 billion, dealing a big blow to the ward reps.
Last year, the MCAs were allowed to spend up to Sh40.61 billion but this has been reduced to Sh36.36 billion in the current fiscal year.
Nairobi, Kiambu, Wajir and Turkana assemblies have suffered the biggest expenditure ceiling reduction.
Nairobi’s has been reduced by Sh327.4 million, Kiambu is down by 229.6 million, Wajir’s budget has been reduced by Sh208.4 million while Turkana assembly has suffered a reduction of 196 million.
The expenditure ceilings are contained in the revised County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2024, passed by the House. Section 107( 2 )(a) of the Public Finance Management Act provides that the county government’s recurrent expenditure shall not exceed the county government’s total revenue.
This excludes the county government’s expenditure on wages and benefits for its public officers, which is capped at 35 per cent of the county’s total revenue.
For the county assemblies, the law provides that their expenditures should not exceed seven per cent of the total county revenue or twice the personal emoluments, whichever is lower.
However, the latest development has triggered disquiet among the MCAs, with the ward reps faulting the senators for attempting to cripple their roles.
“This represents a drastic cut that has a considerable adverse impact on the ability of the county assemblies to perform their constitutional mandate effectively,” County Assemblies Forum chairman Philemon Sabulei said.
He said the reduced expenditure ceiling will disrupt the operations of county assemblies and undermine their constitutional role in devolution and governance.
“It is critical to re-evaluate these adjustments to ensure the county assemblies are adequately resourced to fulfil their constitutional mandate,” Sabulei said.
Initially, the senators had capped the county assemblies’ recurrent expenditure at Sh40.19 billion but radically reduced it.
This is after the President sent
back to Parliament the initial County
Allocation of Revenue Bill that allocated the devolved units Sh400.1
billion
