State faulted for holding Sh70b county funds

The national Government has come under sharp criticism for holding county resources estimated at Sh70 billion, with regional State corporations having the lion share of Sh50 billion.

The Government has also been censured over failure to disclose figures of grants and loans, which are channeled to counties as conditional allocations from donors.

At a public forum organised jointly by Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and International Budget Partnership (IBP) Kenya, various devolution stakeholders blamed inadequate resources for hindering the smooth implementation of county functions.

IBP Kenya noted that Danida and World Bank have allocated Sh0.845 billion and Sh0.913 billion respectively to counties, according to National Treasury proposed grants, while other donor funds are not captured.
CRA, IEA and IBP Kenya argued that the proposed Sh2 billion is not sufficient to level five hospitals, judging by the number of referral cases to Kenya National Hospital (KNH).

"Discussions to have level five hospitals remain referral hospitals hit a snag. The initial figure was Sh10 billion, but the council of governors insisted on the function being devolved. Counties first got Sh3.4 billion, then Sh1.87 billion last year, as they promised to supplement funding from the sharable revenue," affirmed Albert Mwenda, from National Treasury.

However, much of counties' resources go towards recurrent expenditure, with recent figures standing at Sh12.5 billion following recent adjustment of staff remuneration by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.