Top court’s verdict an antidote to revenue woes facing counties

When in soberer times we write the history of our development towards a stronger devolved government system, two decisions by the Supreme Court will stand out. In the first one in 2013, the court reworked the infrastructure for the division of revenue between the two levels of government to include the Senate. Until the court’s decision, the National Assembly had interpreted the Constitution to exclude the Senate from this process.

Even though the Senate exists solely to look out for the interests of county governments, the Assembly somehow believed that the Division of Revenue Bill, which determines how much money will go to the counties, did not concern the Senate. The Supreme Court held otherwise.