NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 — ODM leader Raila Odinga is in Parliament Buildings for a high-stakes breakfast meeting on revenue sharing hosted by the Senate Finance and Budget Committee.
Thursday’s engagement, held in the Senate Chamber, aims to sensitize Senators on the Committee’s recommendations regarding the much-anticipated Fourth Basis Revenue Sharing Formula.
Odinga, a long-time advocate for equitable resource distribution, walked into Parliament shortly after 9.30 am, accompanied by a small delegation of advisors and allies.
The Fourth Basis Revenue Sharing Formula has stirred significant debate among lawmakers, governors, and fiscal experts ahead of its expected implementation for the 2025/26 to 2029/30 financial years.
The formula, developed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), seeks to guide how nationally raised revenues are distributed among the country’s 47 counties.
The CRA’s proposal assigns weights to various parameters: population at 42 per cent, equal share at 22 per cent, poverty index at 14 per cent, geographical size at 9 per cent, and income distance at 13 per cent.
To avoid disadvantaging counties, the CRA also included a stabilization factor to ensure no county receives less than its allocation for the 2024/25 financial year.
However, the Senate Finance and Budget Committee, led by Mandera Senator Ali Roba, rejected the CRA’s proposed formula.
The committee expressed concern that thrity-one counties would lose revenue under the new model.
In response, it recommended establishing a fixed baseline using the current Sh387.42 billion allocation as a permanent minimum.
The committee also proposed increasing the basic share to 35 per cent, maintaining the population factor at 45 per cent, and removing the income distance parameter altogether.
It criticized the CRA’s stabilization mechanism as arbitrary and called for a scientifically developed deviation method.
