Give us financial autonomy, assemblies tell Parliament
Elgeyo-Marakwet County Assembly Speaker Philemon Sabulei addresses journalists in March last year. The County Assemblies Forum chairperson has said they have made proposals to Parliament aimed at giving assemblies more financial autonomy.
Members of county assemblies (MCAs) have made a number of proposals to Parliament on how to strengthen the financial autonomy of the institutions.
Through the County Assemblies Forum (CAF), which brings together MCAs and Speakers from the 47 assemblies, they also called for the formation of a county leadership summit to provide a forum that will help to tame the impeachment “craze”.
The MCAs also want CAF to be funded by the Exchequer, just like the Council of Governors (CoG), which also receives funding from each county.
“Because of lack of finance and institutional support for CAF, the assemblies ability to execute their mandate is weakened. While the Council of Governors is funded and supported by the government and its member counties, CAF, which represents those who are supposed to make laws and oversight the county executive, depends on donors,” said chairperson Philemon Sabulei, who is also the Elgeyo-Marakwet Assembly Speaker.
“What is glaring is the embargo placed by the Office of the Attorney-General on assemblies paying subscription to CAF on account that it is not anchored in law,” Mr Sabulei said.
Public Finance Management
He revealed that they have engaged the speakers of the National Assembly and Senate to have the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act amended.
“County assemblies have been able to achieve partial autonomy through the National Treasury guidelines No. 14 of 2015. However, we are still far from realising full independence. The requirement for the County Executive Committee Member for Finance to appoint signatories for the county assemblies’ accounts continues to hinder the full financial independence of the assemblies,” said Mr Sabulei.
“We are optimistic the speakers of both houses will give us priority and ensure the PFM Act is amended to factor in our proposals,” he stated.
Additionally, assemblies are pushing to have a government office to house the CAF secretariat.
“Support from development partners will help to capacity-build assemblies on matters legislation, oversight and representation,” said Mr Sabulei.
Concerning the impeachment motions in county assemblies, CAF said the county leadership summit will help stem fights between the assemblies and the executive.
“Counties are made up of the executive committees headed by governors and assemblies. They are entirely political in nature. There is need to strengthen understanding between the two arms so that they can appreciate the need to work together,” the CAF chairperson said.
“They need to understand areas of collaboration, synergy and respect for each other’s constitutional duties. There is need to have a working county leadership summit bringing together all the leaders. The summit would help resolve issues whenever they arise. What is happening in Meru County should not have arisen,” he added.
Meru MCAs are currently seeking to impeach Governor Kawira Mwangaza.
He added that they will borrow a leaf from the County Development Bill by former Nandi Senator and now governor Stephen Sang seeking to establish county development boards that will bring together all the county leaders.
“We are studying it before we propose amendments to it,” he said.
Concerning their relationship with the Senate, Mr Sabulei said there is no rivalry between the assemblies since the former is their big brother.
“Article 96 designates Senate as protector of devolution and by extension counties. They oversight counties and also fight for adequate resource allocation. It is the assemblies that oversight counties and approve their budgets,” he said.
