Lawmakers slash additional county funds by Sh23bn

County governments have faced a major setback after Parliament cut their additional allocations by Sh23 billion in the latest budget revisions.

The Senate on Wednesday approved amendments by the National Assembly to reduce the funds allocated under the County Governments Additional Allocation Bill, 2025.

Initially, Senators had approved Sh93.53 billion for counties in the current fiscal year. However, the National Assembly reduced this amount to Sh70.66 billion, leading to protests from several senators.

“Apparently, when the Bill went to the National Assembly, they reduced that figure from Sh93.53 billion to Sh70.66 billion,” said Senate Finance and Budget Committee chairperson Tabitha Mutinda.

The largest cut was the removal of Sh23.64 billion from the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), which MPs argued is tied up in an ongoing court case.

“The reason we agreed to this is because the matter is ongoing in court. Both Houses felt it was wise to let the legal process proceed,” Mutinda explained.

Additionally, MPs cut the allocation for constructing some counties’ headquarters by Sh5 million.

“We were able to discuss with county governors, and what was needed to complete their headquarters was an amount of Kshs454 million,” Mutinda said.

“Apparently, what the National Assembly approved was Sh449 million, but that was a reduction by Sh5 million.”

“Rather than arguing over small changes, we decided to include the Sh5 million in the next fiscal year to resolve the issue,” she added.

However, some senators protested the cuts, accusing the national assembly of consistently pressuring the counties and denying them funds.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said the High Court, which has jurisdiction over the constitutionality of laws passed by Parliament, has already declared the removal of RMLF funds from county governments as unconstitutional.

“I am aware there is a Court of Appeal stay of that decision, but the constitutional court has already determined that, in fact, that was unconstitutional,” he stated.

The senator also accused the national assembly of blackmailing counties and senators over finances.

“In which financial year will this Senate ever stand firm and say, “you give us all or nothing?” Let the county governments shut down as he has suggested here. This is because they are always blackmailing us with threats of shutdown,” he said.

“So, reducing the amount from Sh93 billion to Sh70 billion is a matter the Senate must consider seriously.”

In terms of allocations, Parliament has allocated Sh4.5 billion for the county-wide industrial parks and aggregation program and Sh3.23 billion for stipends to community health promoters.

Counties will also receive Sh11.5 billion from court fines and Sh2.93 billion from mineral royalties.

“This amount represents the 20 percent share of mineral royalties collected in 32 counties from 2016 to 2022. These are statutory entitlements to counties under section 183 (5) of the Mining Act,” the Bill states.

Additionally, Parliament has allocated Sh1.75 billion to settle salary arrears owed to doctors under the return-to-work agreement between the national government and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union.

Counties will also receive Sh56.91 billion from loans and grants from development partners.

“These allocations are distributed across the 47 counties under 17 different programs and projects,” the Bill states.

Machakos Senator Kavindu Muthama criticized the National Assembly, asserting that it has no right to deduct funds allocated to counties because it does not deal directly with them.

“They deal with the National Assembly matters. So, anything to do with the counties, they should just respect us and leave it at our suggestion,” he said.