Senators are pushing to grant county assemblies financial autonomy, a move aimed at giving Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) independence from control by governors.
The development comes as senators threw their support behind a Bill seeking to ensure financial autonomy in terms of how county assemblies run their affairs.
The Bill – The County Public Finance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 – has been sponsored by Meru Senator Kathuri Murungi.
The legislator explained that the Bill, currently at the second reading stage before the Senate, seeks to amend the county public finance laws to have county assemblies access their money directly from the National Treasury.
Further, it proposes the creation of a County Assembly Fund where the assembly clerk will be the administrator.
Currently, he said, when the county assemblies want to requisition money, they go through the CEC Finance.
“When a county assembly is trying to access money so that they can do their oversight and work out their programmes, they must go and kneel to the CECM for Finance, who is a “puppet” of the governor,” said Mr Murungi.
“If that county assembly has issues with the governor, you must realise that that money will never be released. The assembly will be starved of resources,” he added.
The Senate deputy speaker noted that many county assemblies are not able to do their oversight work because they are at the mercy of the county executive.
“The Senate and the National Assembly cannot perform if we rely on the Executive to give us money to do our oversight role or run the administration of the Senate. We want to treat the 47 county assemblies the way the national government treats both Houses of Parliament,” he said.
Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot said the Bill intends to provide a channel through which monies allocated to the county assemblies will be disbursed with the intention being to enable county assemblies access the monies when need arises without solely relying on county treasuries.
“It is extremely wrong for us to sit here as Senators for the last 12 years and allow our colleagues in the county assemblies to go with a begging bowl to the county treasury accounts. It completely undermines their independence and completely exposes them to be manipulated in how they perform their activities and duties,” said the Senate majority leader.
“It is very hard to oversee anybody who feeds you or anybody who holds the key to your resources. I believe that this Bill will enable counties to start to experience serious oversight and accountability by MCAs when the autonomy on financial matters of management finally comes to law,” added Migori Senator Eddy Oketch.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna argued that county assemblies are currently constrained in their oversight responsibilities because of governors who put them on a short leash where if they are not playing ball, they don’t get resources.
“I have seen cases where a governor wants to control who the leadership of the Assembly is. That if you do not co-toe to the wishes of the governor, he can as well decide that this Assembly will run to a halt. All your activities will ground to a halt,” said Mr Sifuna.
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina pointed out that the principle of separation of powers, requires county assemblies to be independent, which is not the case currently.
He observed that if an Assembly clerk wants to authorise any payments, he or she depends entirely on the Executive, with the latter to decide whether to approve such payments or not.
“So, this amendment to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, is quite timely. I, therefore, support it fully, because I would like to see county assemblies being able to carry out their oversight authority without any dependency on the Executive,” he said.
Machakos Senator Agnes Kavindu said the establishment of the County Assembly Fund will empower the MCAs to do development at the ward levels as well as improve oversight as the ward representatives will be independent with their own funds, hence not reliant on the governor.
“I have seen these MCAs work with a lot of trouble because they have to dance to the tune of the governor. If they do not dance to the tune of the governor, then their wards will not be developed,” Ms Kavindu said.
“If you go to the wards of those MCAs who do not work together with the governor, you will find that those wards do not have roads, water; they have nothing,” she added.
The first-term senator said she has come across some incidents where if an MCA brings a statement or a Motion before the Assembly, they are labeled as fighting the governors.
“The MCAs are unable to do their oversight work because they have to dance to the governor's tune and if they see anything wrong, they cannot even voice it because they will be accused of fighting the governor and their wards will not be developed.”
