Senate bill seeks to allocate counties Sh41 billion more
Written by Inka FM on 6 July 2023
Counties will be allocated Sh41.36 billion more if Parliament approves a law giving the devolved units additional funding in the current financial year.
The County Governments Additional Allocation Bill, 2023, sponsored by the Senate’s Budget and Finance Committee chairman Ali Roba (Mandera), gives the counties grants from the national government and development partners.
The Bill comes a week after President William Ruto signed into law two crucial Bills that unlocked in excess of Sh395 billion to the counties.
The County Allocation of Revenue Fund Act, 2023, gives the counties Sh385 billion and the Equalisation Fund (Appropriations) Act, 2023, allocated the devolved units Sh10.3 billion.
In the new Bill, the counties have been allocated Sh16.01 billion in conditional allocations from the national government revenue.
They also get Sh3.04 billion in unconditional grants from court fines and mineral royalties and Sh33.19 billion from loans and grants from development partners.
The counties will also receive Sh4.12 billion in grants from the national government for certain development functions if the Bill is passed.
Also in the Bill are Sh765 million allocation from German Development Bank for Drought Resilience Programme and Sh3.26 billion for the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement project.
On grants from the national government for certain development functions, the counties have been allocated Sh1.64 billion for Livestock Value Chain Support Project, Sh2.1 billion for De-Risking and Value Enhancement and Sh320.88 million for Kenya Marine Fisheries and Social-Economic Development.
“The principal object of this Bill is to make provision for the transfer of conditional allocations from national governments share of revenue and from development partners to the county governments for the financial year 2023-24,” the Bill states.
Under loans and grants from development partners, the counties will receive Sh3.15 billion from World Bank for the Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (Nagrip) and Sh8.25 billion from the same agency for Agricultural Value Chain Development Project.
The Bill also allocates counties Sh2.16 billion from World Bank for Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project and Sh535 billion for Water and Sanitation Development Project.
“The Grant is to be allocated among County Governments on the basis of the criteria in Section 5 (3) (m) of the County Government Additional Allocations Act, 2023,” the Bill states.
“Sh33,192,137,406.79 is the total allocations for all the 12 Conditional Allocations from proceeds of loans or grants from Development Partners for Financial Year 2023-24,” it adds.
Under the conditional allocations from the national government revenue, the counties will get Sh5.86 billion from the Ministry of Health for the Managed Equipment Service, translating to Sh124.72 million per county.
Five counties have also been allocated Sh454 million for the construction of headquarters. They are Isiolo (Sh60 million), Lamu (Sh48.84 million), Nyandarua (Sh121 million), Tana River (Sh121 million) and Tharaka Nithi (Sh103.16 million).
Each of the 47 counties will also get Sh100 million for the establishment of industrial parks, translating to Sh4.7 billion for all the 47 devolved units.
The county governments have also been allocated Sh5 billion for the provision of a fertilizer subsidy programme.
“Each county treasury shall reflect all transfers of conditional allocations by the National Government to the respective county government in its books of accounts,” the Bill states.
On the unconditional grants from court fines and mineral royalties, select counties will get a total of Sh108.66 million from court fines and Sh2.93 billion for mineral royalties.
