Nakuru County assembly, executive row over budget boils over

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui at a past event. (File, Standard)

A row between the county assembly and the executive over the 2018-2019 budget has intensified, with Governor Lee Kinyanjui accusing MCAs of trying to sabotage his development agenda.

At least 56 of the 78 ward representatives have signed a petition calling for the impeachment of Finance Executive Joseph Kiuna over delays in submitting key documents in the budget-making process.

But Mr Kinyanjui said Mr Kiuna had done nothing to warrant impeachment. Instead he accused the MCAs of trying to hold him hostage over the County Revenue Allocation Bill 2018, which he has declined to sign into law.

“What grave violation of the Public Finance Management Act has the CEC Finance committed to warrant the impeachment motion?” he posed.

Speaking for the first time on the budget crisis, a furious Kinyanjui told The Standard on Tuesday evening of plans by a number of MCAs to "hold him hostage".

Elected governor

“I was elected governor by 'Wanjiku' (the people) and I have a contract with voters to deliver on development for the next five years. That is my mandate! The MCAs know and understand their oversight roles and should not frustrate us,” the governor said.

Kinyanjui admitted there were underlying issues that had to do with his failure to assent to the County Revenue Allocation Bill 2018, which he returned to the assembly with a memorandum in January.

“I discussed with the MCAs their proposals contained in the bill. I advised them to do some amendments to the bill but they failed to do so,” he said.

He also explained that the delay in approving the names of nine chief officers he submitted to the assembly for vetting and approval last year was partly to blame for the current budget crisis.

“If the assembly had vetted and approved those names on time, this issue would not have arisen. Some of them claim there were officers in office as the process of vetting and approval was taking place. But I want to remind them that I would not have left the process of making my first budget in the hands of some officials whose intentions I did not know.”

Vetting process

The vetting and approving of the nine chief officers was halted following a court case filed by Senator Victor Prengei (nominated). But on February 14, Justice Stephen Radido ruled that the issues raised could be handled during the vetting process. The assembly has since approved five of the nine nominees.

Speaker Joel Kairu said they were not on a witch-hunting mission but rather only doing their jobs.