Governors defy Ruto in Sh103 billion cash demand

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto says the Council of Governors has resolved to collect six million signatures in support of the referendum. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Governors, senators and civil society activists have teamed up in their push for a referendum on the powers of the Senate and county governments.

Just a day after it emerged the issue had split Jubilee governors by party, the message was simple: You cannot stop an idea whose time has come.

“If you don’t support devolution”, they warned, “you will get a revolution!”

Friday’s meeting agreed to seek out six million signatures in support for a referendum on devolution and demand some Sh100 billion more in funds.

Chairman of the Council of Governors, Mr Isaac Ruto (Jubilee/URP), said the push would not end until the Constitution requires that “not less than 45 per cent of government revenues” be disbursed to the county governments.

Ruto threw in a fresh twist with a claim that the government is holding onto Sh103 billion for work that the counties should be doing. That, plus the Sh210 billion allocated so far, make up 45 per cent of revenues collected last year.

“They have hidden Sh103 billion in the books to build markets, footbridges, water pans and storm-water drainage,” Ruto claimed. “I hear they even want to buy tractors for us. We’re saying, that (amount will get us to) 45 per cent of last audited revenues. That’s what we want to put in law. They have already allocated the money, why are they finding it difficult to have that in law? We don’t want to push for a referendum every other year.”

Mr Ruto led governors Josephat Nanok (Turkana) and Ali Roba (Mandera), plus senator Hassan Omar (Mombasa) to a meeting with civil society officers at a Nairobi hotel, where they vowed to ensure the Senate is strengthened to protect the counties. They said, leaving the statutory threshold at “not less than 15 per cent” will affect planning and execution of county projects.

They dismissed the promise by Deputy President William Ruto that the Jubilee government will allocate more money to the counties as simply a gentleman’s agreement, saying money would be doled out on a discretionary basis. The governors’ team leader said he was not worried that some senators and governors were pulling out of the bid for a referendum because their political party bosses had advised against it.

“The more I listen to our political leaders… where they still appeal to tribal and political party affiliations… the more I am convinced that we must go to a referendum,” said Ruto. “If every time you have an idea, you have to drop it simply because your opponent agrees with it, then it means you did not believe in the idea (in the first place). Why would some Jubilee governors and senators pull out of the referendum push simply because CORD supports the initiative? We are dealing with national issues, not CORD issues.”

Divisive

The governors and senators said they never expected “absolute unanimity” on the issue of devolution, because, not only has devolution been divisive, but it also poses a threat to those used to control of resources at the centre.

“In life there can never be absolute unanimity. Wherever there’s absolute unanimity, there’s absolute dictatorship. When we said we were going for a referendum, we never expected it to be easy. We knew there will be challenges,” added Hassan, the Mombasa senator.

Hassan blamed the chairman of the Transition Authority, Mr Kinuthia Wamwangi, for failing to roll out functions to the counties, claiming lack of capacity. In his view, the national government cannot continue delivering services to marginalized areas when there’s a functioning devolved government.

For Nanok and Roba, the two governors from Turkana and Mandera — the poorest and the second-poorest counties respectively — the national government has no basis to deny governors and county governmentsenough money, simply because they lack capacity to absorb the money.

“If there’s a time that we need money to deliver services to our people, this is the time. The national government has been telling us that we should wait. For the last 50 years they have not been able to deliver services, what makes them think that they can deliver now?” posed Mr Nanok.

The situation in the counties is desperate, according to Roba, and if the national government persists in holding onto resources, then, life would be difficult for the people in the counties. “The counties are not outside Kenya. There’s no space out there called the national government. I want to tell the Jubilee government, if you don’t support the 47 counties, you will have nothing to show for it,” said Roba.

He said government workers had been sent to many of the marginalized counties, but they had never reported to their duty stations, yet, they continued to draw salaries.