Turkana County Governor Josphat Nanok has added his voice to the proposed third generation revenue allocation debate saying that all counties in the Country should have a fair and equitable allocation of funds and resources
The Governor reiterated that there is a need for Counties with a lot of land to benefit from a lot of funds to open up areas that were marginalized.
“Counties like Turkana have a lot of land but they were marginalized hence they need to get a lot of money for them to be opened up,” he said, “Kenya is for all and resources is for the 47 million Kenyans. It will be hard for areas with big land mass to be opened up if the proposed formula is anything to go by. Areas with huge lands like Trans Nzoia should get more funds where there is potential to grow.”
The Governor said Turkana is the largest and poorest County in the country and needs money to establish institutions and structures to uplift the living standards of residents.
“The overreaching principle to be used as a basis for revenue allocation is spelled out in the Principles of Public Finance (Article 201) specifically 201 (b)-‘the public finance system shall promote an equitable society’ – and 201 (b)(iii) – ‘expenditure shall promote the equitable development of the country’,” he said.
The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) came up with a formula which was to be adopted by the Senate which assigns health 15 percent, basic share 14 percent, agriculture 10, while the population has been weighted 18 from 45 percent in the current formula.
If the formula is applied, Turkana is among the Counties that will have their allocation slashed by at least Kshs 367 million.
