Treasury CS Henry Rotich called to House over county funds

NAIROBI: Furious MPs in charge of the budget-making process in both the Senate and the National Assembly Wednesday summoned the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for the National Treasury Henry Rotich to explain the "premature" release of proposals for county allocations.

The National Assembly's Budget and Appropriations Committee, and the Senate's Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs sought to quell anxiety among governors that the two Houses had already agreed on the allocations to counties.

In separate news conferences at Parliament's Media Centre, the MPs said there are no allocations yet until both Houses agree on the yet-to-be published Division of Revenue Bill, 2015; a new formula on sharing the revenues among the 47 counties; and the yet-to-be published County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2015.

"If we begin communicating the money that should go to one county and the other, and then it changes, we might find ourselves dealing with tensions in society around this allocations," said Mutava Musyimi, the chairman of National Assembly's Budget and Appropriations Committee.

The date with Rotich will be on Tuesday next week, where the CS will also be addressing the Treasury's position on the Supplementary Budget.

The Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council met Wednesday to settle on the amount of money to be given to county governments at Sh283 billion.