Friday, October 7, 2022 – The honeymoon is over for President William Ruto after the Council of Governors (CoG) gave him an ultimatum to release funds to counties by Monday, or else things will never be the same again.
In a statement yesterday, CoG, under the able leadership of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, called upon Ruto’s Government to expedite the process of disbursing funds to the counties.
Waiguru decried the delay in the disbursement noting that they have been compelled to halt development projects and response activities in the counties due to insufficient funds.
The governors, as such, demanded the disbursement of the funds before Monday, October 10.
“The Council, therefore, calls upon the National Treasury to release all the outstanding disbursements to Counties on or before Monday, October 10, 2022,” a statement sent by the council read in part.
“So far, the continued delay in disbursement of funds has paralysed county operations with respect to payment of salaries to officials, purchase of medical supplies, stalling of development projects and response interventions in drought and disaster management.”
According to the governors – the total sum of funds allocated to the counties for October is in the region of Ksh29.6 billion. Further, the governors stated that the national government owes counties arrears of over Ksh50 billion for August and September.
“As of today, the total outstanding arrears owed to counties stands at Ksh51 billion as follows; Ksh20.31 billion owed to 27 Counties for the August 2022 allocation and Kshs31.45 billion owed to 47 Counties for September 2022 allocation,” Waiguru stated after meeting governors.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had assured the governors of the timely disbursement of funds to enable them to meet the expectations on devolution.
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