NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 3 – The Senate leadership is on Monday scheduled to hold a meeting with Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani in a bid to resolve the county revenue standoff.
Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kanga’ta told Capital FM News that the meeting called by Yattani is aimed at unlocking the stalemate that has delayed the release of Sh316 billion shareable revenue to counties under the current financial year..
Kanga’ata however, declined to delve much into the matter: “no, I am off this issue until Wednesday,” he said.
His attempt to table an amendment to the Finance Committee report which would have seen the postponement of the implementation of the proposed formula by two years was shot down by Senators last week during an acrimonious debate that was punctuated by name calling.
The Monday meeting’s resolution could be a deal breaker ahead of Tuesday’s sittings where the Senators are expected to debate and approve the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2020 which has antagonized them for six successive sittings.
With the latest consultations billed to yield results, Kanga’ta is hopeful that similar events will not unfold on Tuesday when the Senators reconvene to try reach a truce on the matter.
Yatani’s consultative forum will be attended by among others Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka, Senate Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio, Council of Governors Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o and the Attorney General Kihara Kariuki.
The meeting comes at a time when the devolved units are facing an imminent cash crisis, a situation that risks affecting the delivery of crucial services.
Already, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) on Sunday issued a seven-day strike notice over delayed salaries.
The union’s Secretary General Seth Panyako said that the union will not sit and watch nurses’ salaries delayed because of the stalemate which he termed was artificial.
The war on COVID-19 also risks being jeopardized if the Senators do not reach a consensus by Tuesday.
The raging debate on the controversial formula which if passed without any amendment will see some counties gain millions of shillings and other lose has been compounded by 2022 succession politics since some Senators are eyeing to unseat their Governors.
Attempts by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been largely accused of being silent on the matter, and ODM Party Leader to whip their members to pass the formula have hit a snag on numerous occasions.
Nairobi Senators Johnson Sakaja has since proposed that the devolved units continue to share the Sh316 billion using the existing formula, an amendment he insists if adopted would be a win-win situation for all the counties.
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