West Pokot Senator Samuel Poghisio has called for increased allocation of funds to devolved units for poverty eradication. Poghisio further urged the government to ensure decentralization of resources to the grassroots level to facilitate devolution and enhance service delivery.
He emphasized that Counties must be allocated enough resources to perform their duties effectively. The Senator who is opposed to the Division of Revenue Bill 2019, which shares revenue raised nationally among the two levels of government said Counties need more funds because the percentage at the moment is very low.
Speaking in Kapenguria after visiting the County Assembly, Poghisio proposed an adjustment in the proposed law that will see Counties Equitable Allocation share at Kshs 335 billion instead of the current Kshs 310 billion.
“The National Assembly and Senate have not agreed over division revenue bill and we are still working on it. We will not allow the National Assembly to reduce the funds for Counties. We, as a Senate, support that Counties get Kshs 335 billion based on the Commission on Revenue Allocation formula. We must reject in totality the attempt by the National Assembly to reduce the allocation to the counties,” said Poghisio.
He vowed to continue pushing for more funding to the Counties, in a move that could see the devolved units allocated more funds than the amount proposed by the National Assembly. “The Senate will not allow another version of the Division of Revenue Bill that reduces funding to the Counties,” he said.
Poghisio pointed out that many Counties in the North Rift region were marginalized and are still lagging behind in development. “A lot of work is supposed to be done in Counties. The Counties need water, sewage systems and roads. West Pokot County gets only 4.7 billion shillings and we need the allocation increased because the County has many problems,” he said.