Audit boosts push for more cash to counties

Governors and the Opposition got a major boost to their respective campaigns to change the Constitution when an audit of the four-year-old document revealed that counties were getting very little money, and the Senate was toothless.

The Socio-Economic Audit of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, released yesterday, debunked the myth that the national government had in the past two years spent more in the counties than previous governments used to spend prior to the roll-out of devolution.

The report of a government task force chaired by Auditor General Edward Ouko shows the money to the counties pumped into agriculture and health – the functions which cost the national government Sh125 billion — has gone down to Sh89.5 billion.

During the release of an interim report at the Boma Hotel in Nairobi, the National Assembly's Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Mutava Musyimi said the report would give MPs a chance to see what changes are required to make the Constitution, which turns five in August, work.

The interim report was emphatic the data does not support the Government's claim more money is going to the counties than it used to. "The available data does not provide definitive evidence that more money is going to the grassroots under devolution than before," added the report.

James Nyikal (Seme), a member of the committee and an Opposition MP, was ecstatic at the political mileage the audit had given the Okoa Kenya campaign which seeks more money to the counties.

"I am happy to learn that counties are getting less money. It will be a fantastic argument for those of us who have been asking for more money to go to the counties. Now we have the facts," said Nyikal.