Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, MCAs clash over budget

Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana faces another fallout with Members of the County Assembly over the budget.

Prof Kibwana has asked the MCAs to explain why they allocated themselves money without falling the law. A few months ago, the Governor crossed swords with the MCAs when he refused to yield to their demands for extra cash. 

Kibwana said the MCAs erred in passing a law giving them power to actively participate in the implementation of the budget and development activities.

He is now accusing the MCAs of planning to make "outrageous" allocations to themselves without involving the County Executive as required by County Government Act.

Kibwana said the county legislators have included "unconstitutional" items in the budget without enough consultation, which could lead to misappropriation of public funds.

He said the assembly's budget should have been combined with that of the County Executive and submitted to wananchi as a singular item for scrutiny.

Playing games

According to Kibwana, the MCAs acted unconstitutionally by not submitting their budget to the Executive Member in Charge of Finance for combination with that of the County Executive.

"The MCAs only chose to submit the budget drawn by the County Executive while theirs was hidden at "the back pocket" and this is wrong because, the whole budget must be scrutinised and endorsed by the public," said Kibwana.

In a press statement, Kibwana said the Executive is opposed to some figures which have been captured in the assembly's budget, which he says have been inflated.

"The MCAs for instance want to purchase computers worth Sh30 million for slightly over 100 staff while the Executive with more than 4,900 staff is spending only Sh7 million on computers," he said.