President William Ruto has moved in to resolve a row between the Council of Governors and some members of Cabinet.
Ruto, while addressing a joint session between the Cabinet and the governors, directed the two levels of government to work together
This came after governors accused some CSs of by-passing them and trying to claw back some of the devolved functions.
The President said the government would have made major strides if it had worked with governors from the beginning.
“The reason I invited the Council of Governors to this meeting is to make sure that the CSs and PSs understand that the counties are our partners and not competitors,” Ruto said in Lake Naivasha Resort.
The President said turf wars will only end up hurting the electorate.
“The government supports devolution 100 per cent and a loss to the Council of Governors is a loss to the country,” he told the joint meeting.
Ruto assured governors of the national government’s support, irrespective of their party affiliation.
“Recently I visited Homa Bay to launch the affordable housing project and many people questioned this decision but beyond politics we have a country,” he said.
CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru said governors have been restraining from fighting back against some CSs who were taking up their duties.
She said the council fully supports the government’s development projects but urged the Cabinet to give counties a chance to deliver.
The Kirinyaga governor took issue with incidents where some CSs were appointing officers for jobs that could be done by the county governments.
“Some CSs feel like their portfolio is holding them back in office and they are trying to claw back the gains of devolution and we shall not allow this,” she said.
Waiguru warned that any plans to take back devolved functions by members of the Cabinet would be rejected by the governors.
“We have had issues in the health and agriculture sector where some roles are being replicated and if this was resolved, we would have made major strides,” she said.
National Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u said the appreciating Kenya shilling will help address the issue of inflation.
“The noise over the weak shilling has gone down and we expect interest rate and the inflation rate to come down,” he said.
PS Chris Kiptoo said the country’s revenue could rise higher if all Kenyans pay taxes.
He said of the 20 million Kenyans who have KRA PIN, only eight million remit taxes.
“Some people allege that Kenyans are overtaxed and this is a lie compared to other countries. We should engage the public further on the issue of taxes,” Kiptoo said.
