MPs want governors to return Sh29b

By VITALIS KIMUTAI and ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Members of the National Assembly were last evening shocked to learn the Sh210 billion allocated to the 47 counties includes Sh29 billion allocated to three State authorities.

Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Henry Rotich, told the MPs the money allocated to the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Rural Electrification Authority (Rea), which the legislators wanted reverted to the national government, had already been released to the counties.

“When we prepared the budgetary estimates, we factored the money allocated to Kura, Kerra, and Rea to the counties and we categorised them under roads and electrification funds,” Rotich told the MPs.

The angry MPs took on the Treasury boss and demanded that he initiates a supplementary budget to have the money reverted to the national government.

Michael Kamau, the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure said the Cabinet was committed to implementing devolution but most of them have not settled.

The MPs tore into the Transition Authority (TA) for playing with the minds of the politicians, in that, when TA meet the MPs, it told them the money for roads and electricity can be withdrawn from the national government. But when it met governors and senators, it told them that the money was in the counties.