By IBRAHIM S. MOHAMUD

Tomorrow is National Budget day. The Governor of Wajir County recently released his County Budget Estimates totaling Sh6,928,942,282. He proposed Sh3,876,600,000 for Development expenditure and Sh3,052,342,282 for Recurrent expenditure. He deserves congratulations for doing so when other Governors are still dilly-dallying. It is also commendable that he listed priority projects in this financial year.

But it is disturbing that he did this without following due process of the law. He also unveiled a very skewed formula for distributing resources to various sectors of development in the county.

Constitution of Kenya 2010 article 196 (1) (b) demands public participation and involvement in the legislative and other business of the assembly and its committees.

The Public Finance Management Act S.125 (2) demands that the County Executive Committee ensures that there is public participation in the entire budget process.

Furthermore, the Public Finance Management Act S.137 demands formation of the County Budget and Economic Forum consisting of the Governor, the County Executive Committee and members of the civil society.

It is these mandatory legal requirements that the governor has contravened.

It is disheartening that the governor, Hon. Ahmed Abdullahi Mohamed assembled existing departmental heads only, at Wajir Hilton Hotel for a two-day workshop on April 27 and 28. On 29th, he convened an impromptu assembly at Wajir Girls Secondary School without involving the entire county. Local radio station, Community FM broadcast the proceedings live from the school. But with due respect, Community FM frequencies do not cover the entire Wajir.

He proposed to implement various projects across the county but totally refused to disclose specific electoral wards targeted for development.

Wajir County covers 56,685.8km2 with a mean annual temperature of 28°C and rainfall ranging between 250mm and 700mm per annum in different parts. This means serious aridity and requires serious interventions in the water sector. It is scandalous to see school-age children by the roadside begging for water from motorists.

The governor allocated only Sh89,331,640 in the recurrent budget and Sh1,450,000,000 in development expenditure for small-scale water projects, whereas priority should be the construction of a mega-dam in Lagbohol to serve vast areas of Wajir West including Hadado and Wajir South constituencies.

Wajir has no tarmac roads while it has gravel surface of 63km and earth surface roads covering 1,818.2km. The governor has prioritised tarmacking roads in Wajir town and consequently allocated Sh831,265,640 for recurrent expenses and  Sh1,679,000,000 for the development vote.  This should not be a priority now considering the meager resources available and the prevalent water problems facing our people, which should be addressed first.

Wajir has a population of 363,766 men and 298,175 women. It has a population density of 12 people per km2. Poverty level is 84% and the age dependency ratio of 100:118.

The main economic activities are livestock rearing, livestock trade and other commercial businesses. Agriculture will receive only Sh71,477,640 for recurrent vote and Sh310 million only for development purposes.

Wajir has 125 primary schools and 17 secondary schools whereas the enrolment in primary stands at 28,481 with a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:58 while secondary school enrolment is 2,908 with a ratio of 1:21.

Health crisis

The primary and secondary schools are too few and so far apart and this explains the high dropout rates. We deserves at least one primary school and a secondary school in every ward. Yet he has only allocated Education Sh158,369,640 in recurrent vote and Sh51.6 million only for development purposes. Now compare the fact that the department of Information will get Sh100 million for development.

Wajir has 4 district hospitals, 2 sub-district hospitals, 42 dispensaries, 17 health centers, 21 medical clinics and 2 nursing homes. Wajir has a doctor to population ratio of 1:356,340 while World Health Organization recommends 1:1000. It has an infant mortality rate of 90 in every 1,000 children under the age of 5. The prevalent diseases include malaria, urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, and malnutrition.

Only one out of every 20 children are born in a health facility whereas 8 out of every 10 children in Kirinyaga County are born in a health facility. And, 79% of children are at the risk of chronic malnutrition compared to 16% in Mombasa county. These figures reveal a health crisis and yet the entire Health docket has received only Sh341,798,640 for recurrent purposes while the development vote is only Sh235 million. Surely, Wajir deserves one fully equipped health-centre in every ward.

The County Executive alone will receive Sh587,395,824, the County Assembly Sh205,485,226 and County Public Service Sh196,258,400. The total is Sh989,139,450, yet the total budget for the entire Health, Agriculture and Education is only Sh972,924,920.

Is such skewed allocation just a “Wajir special” or are other counties facing similar governance hiccups?    Parts of the county are more developed while others and bear the unmistakable marks of marginalisation by previous clan-based policies.

There is need for a serious remedial developmental approach and, therefore, any ambiguous, cryptic and amorphous document that is long on promise and short on substance must be rejected at all costs.

Writer was TNA candidate for Wajir West  Constituency in the last General Election.