Governor asks government to account for the ‘missing’ Sh24 billion

By NIKKO TANUI

Kericho, Kenya: Jubilee government has been asked to account for the missing Sh24 billion revealed in the report released by the Controller of Budget.

Council of Governors Chairman Isaac Ruto has said the national government must account for the money since whenever “negligible” amounts of money go missing at the counties; the national government creates a big fuss about it.

“If for instance  as little as Sh2, 000  allocated to a village school goes missing, the whole country will hear about it  but when over Sh20 billion go missing at the national government, the issue is talked about for a day and quickly swept under the carpet,” Ruto said.

He argued that Sh27 billion the county governments failed to spend was better than Sh24 billion that the national government could not account for.

“County governments failed to spend a fraction of the revenue allocation which is better because the money is still there unlike the huge amount of money which the national government cannot account for,” Ruto said.

Speaking at Kapkitony village, Bureti constituency in Kericho County, the Bomet governor said the the national government must be pressurized to increase revenue allocated to counties.

“The country’s economy will only improve when there is more money in circulation at the grassroots,” Ruto said.

He criticized a section of Senators and first time Members of Parliament for opposing the calls by governors for more money to be allocated to the counties.