MCAs unhappy with budgetary allocations

By JOSEPH MASHA

Kilifi, Kenya: Kilifi County MCAs now want the county government to disburse Sh10 million to enable them maintain roads in their wards in the 2014-2015 financial year.

This would amount to Sh350 million for the 35 wards, yet just Sh330 million has been given to the roads sector in the county’s proposed budget.

According to estimates now under scrutiny, each ward or MCA will be allocated Sh3.5 million to maintain roads and the MCAs, who already control Sh10 million each in ward development money, are not happy about this.

They complained that they had been promised Sh10 million for roads per ward in the next budget.

NOT HONOURED

The MCAs expressed their displeasure at a stakeholder’s scrutiny of the 2014-2015 estimates held at the Sun n Sand Beach Resort  in Kilifi County on Wednesday.

They said County Executive Committee Member for Public Works, Edmund Saburi, had not honoured their earlier proposal of Sh10 million per ward.

Led by Ruruma Ward MCA, Naftaly Kombo, the MCAs demanded to know why Mr Saburi was giving them only Sh3.5 million for each ward, alleging that the money would not meet the county’s needs.

“In our proposals, we recommended that the county government should allocate Sh10 million to each of the 35 elective wards to help us fix our rural roads and it is shocking to learn that only  Sh3.5 million has been set aside for us,” Mr Kombo said

Responding to the queries, Saburi said the reduction was occasioned by the amount allocated to the Roads department, which is Sh330 million for the 2014-2015 financial year.

Saburi said he would need to use Sh60 million of this amount to build a fire station and some money would be spent on street lighting in selected towns.

MADE DEMANDS

“It is true the MCAs had proposed an allocation of Sh10 million for the 35 elective wards to address issues of roads in their respective wards but due to the meagre funds allocated to my docket, the figure had to be reduced after consultations with different stakeholders,” Saburi said.

The MCAs were, however, not convinced and Kombo said Sh60 million was too much for a fire station. He demanded a reduction so as to release money for roads, saying MCAs were under intense pressure from voters to improve roads.

RESOURCES DISTRIBUTION

The MCAs also want the county government to ensure equity and equality in disbursing resources and development money across constituencies.

Speaking at the same event, Gideon Mungaro of Kilifi North, Mustaffa  Idd of Kilifi South, Gunga Mwinga of Kaloleni and Harrison Kombe of Magarini constituencies said all wards must benefit from the county government’s resources and planning.

Governor Amason Kingi, who opened the conference on Tuesday, said his administration was committed to equal and equitable development of all regions of the county.

However, Mungaro claimed the Sh374 million allocated to the lands docket was too little to address the region’s immense challenges, including settlement of squatters.

“People living as squatters is the biggest challenge in Kilifi county and we want to see our county government taking the issue seriously by allocating enough money to address the problem,” he said.

Rabai MP William Kamoti  claimed his constituency had been discriminated against in terms of allocation of development projects.

“According to the proposed budget allocations, Rabai constituency has not benefited much and I want the governor to look into that,” he said.

 Kombe said many roads in Magarini, where the governor comes from, were in a deplorable state and needed rehabilitation.

“Roads in my constituency are in a sorry state and get really bad during the rainy season, like now. The county government must do something to change this because it is the only way the impact of devolution will be felt by all,” he said.

Kombe said residents needed to feel that the county government was looking out for them and the only way to do so was by ensuring there was equal distribution of development funds to all corners of the region.