Counties warn of shutdown in revenue row

Governors have threatened to shut down operations in county governments across the country from next month if the Division of Revenue impasse is not resolved.

Council of Governors (CoG) chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said if the standoff over the allocation of revenue to counties does not yield fruit soon, then all counties would grind to a halt immediately after September 16, 2019.

“As you all know, the matter is not in our court as Governors, it is being resolved by the two Houses. We hope that they can resolve the matter expeditiously to ease the suffering that is in the counties.

“Beyond this date, if the matter is not resolved then we have resolved that county governments will have no option but to shut down,” added Mr Oparanya.

He said this at a media briefing after a meeting of the Council’s top leadership at Delta House in Nairobi on Thursday.

The impasse caused cash crisis in counties that led to strikes over salary delays early this month with a number of several county governments failing to pay their workers to date.

Mr Oparanya, who is also Kakamega County Governor, pointed out that the devolved units have been struggling to pay salaries for their staff, adding that the counties will not be able to pay salaries at the end of this month and going forward.

He said most counties have not been able to pay salaries to their employees for the last two months as a result of the standoff between the National Assembly and the Senate over the allocation. “Some counties are struggling to pay their workers salary with arrears of two months and we have even warned our workers to prepare for hard times ahead,” he said.

Last month, governors moved to the Supreme Court seeking its advisory on how the State revenues should be shared out between the counties and the national government after the National Assembly disregarded the recommendations of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). This comes after Parliament failed to pass the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019 following disagreements between the Senate and the National Assembly, a fallout that has starved counties of cash. The National Assembly is in agreement with the Treasury to allocate counties Sh310 billion as equitable shared revenue, but the Senate wants Sh335 billion in line with the CRA advise.