KISUMU, Kenya, Nov 26 – President William Ruto has directed the two houses to ensure they fast track the passing into law of the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA) and the County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) before they go on recess.
This, the president said, will help ease the channeling of funds to the counties as he promised to defend devolution.
President Ruto says currently there is no framework anchored on the division of revenue, as they always rely on the advice of the Attorney General.
“I have directed both the Majority Leaders and the Speakers to ensure the Bills are passed,” he said.
He says the Bills once enacted into law, will ensure resources to the Counties are released timey without any hiccups as currently witnessed.
President Ruto was speaking in Kisumu on Tuesday when he officially opened the 4th AfSNET Conference in Kisumu.
The Conference has been organized by Afreximbank and the County Government of Kisumu.
The head of state was responding to his Cabinet Secretary for treasury John Mbadi who announced that through the advisory of the AG, the government has managed to release funds to the counties.
He further announced a framework agreement with Afreximbank of Sh. 3 billion USD to go to the many aspects of the country’s economy.
“They have supported our imports of fuel, our commodities trade and many other aspects, today we are going to sign off some of the agreements with the Bank,” he said.
President Ruto says his administration through such agreements is looking at the cotton value chain, with an aim of reviving the crop in the region.
He says the cotton value chain has three components, which include seed multiplication, support to farmers, ginnery and access to the markets.
In the fisheries sector, the head of state announced the establishment of a Sh. 2.6 billion rescue centre to be built along Lake Victoria to respond to lake accidents.
Additionally, he says the Kabonyo Kanyagwal fisheries centre is on course and construction will start very soon.
“We want to start breeding fingerlings, which we can release into the lake to restock the dwindling stock in the lake. It is a pity that as a country, we are importing fish,” he said.
President Ruto further announced that talks are in place with investors to complete the stalled Mamboleo convention Centre under a public private partnership.
