The new revenue-sharing formula among counties is flawed and discriminatory, COG tells the Senate

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

The Council of Governors has poured cold water on the Fourth Basis of revenue sharing among counties proposed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation terming it flawed and discriminatory.

The revenue sharing formula is based on five parameters with Population taking the largest weight of 42 per cent, Equal Share at 22 per cent, Poverty having an assigned weight of 14 per cent, Income Distance has 13 per cent and Geographical Size the least assigned weight of nine per cent.

In a meeting with the Finance and Budget Committee earlier today, the Council of Governors (COG) led by Governor Fernandes Barasa (Kakamega) informed Senators that if the Fourth Basis of revenue sharing among counties is implemented, a majority of counties will receive a lower equitable share than what they received in the Third Basis.

“The recommended allocation to counties is Kshs.417.425 billion. If you apply the CRA’s recommended formula to this allocation, 31 Counties could lose a cumulative amount of Kshs.12.106 billion,” Governor Barasa, the Chairperson of the CoG’s Finance Committee, said.

Once the level of accounting has been raised to a certain threshold, they explained, lowering it would be detrimental to the service delivery in counties and beseeched the Senate to take a firm stand that no county should lose any money.

While agreeing with CoG that no counties should lose money, Members of the Mandera Senator Ali Roba-led Committee criticized the overall submissions by the Council of Governors for lacking depth and counterproposals.

“A lot of thought has not gone into coming before this committee on this presentation. This is a very critical issue that is going to affect you very seriously. You don't criticize without making counter-proposals because otherwise, then it just becomes an academic exercise,” Senator Ali Roba, the Chairperson of the Committee, remarked.

He directed the county bosses to review their presentation and provide more thorough and well-thought-out counter-proposals to the formula to enable the Senate to come up with a fair and understandable formula.