Experts fault push for more county cash

Budget experts are now questioning the rationale for the Opposition-led push for the counties to get three times the amount of money prescribed in the Constitution.

The Kenyan office of the International Budget Partnership said the proposal under the Okoa Kenya initiative to have 45 per cent of revenues of the previous year devolved was "extreme". The Constitution prescribes a minimum of 15 per cent.

According to IBP-Kenya's calculations, the proposal works out to Sh462 billion going to the counties, yet the current allocation for shareable revenue is Sh258 billion.

"This means that the Okoa Kenya approach would increase funding to counties in a single year by over Sh200 billion. Is this realistic? Is there any justification for this huge increase?" the budget lobby asked.

In their view, those pushing for increased allocation have not explained how they arrived at the figure.

"It is not clear how so much money could be transferred to counties without potentially affecting national functions such as education or security. At a minimum, an explanation for this massive shift must be provided in terms of the functions that the two levels of government perform," the experts said in a brief.

They also said the push by Okoa Kenya initiative to retain the Constituency Development Fund was ill-advised as it makes devolution even more expensive. "The push to try to revive CDF reduces the amount of money that is available for devolution," the said.