This archive report was first published on 8 June 2020.
On June 8, 2020, Kajiado County Governor Joseph Ole Lenku expressed his concerns over the treasury's allocation of COVID-19 funds, citing that the county's needs have been misjudged.
According to the governor, the county has been allocated Sh52 million out of the Sh5 billion COVID-19 kitty, despite having 92 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
"The allocation of Sh5 billion to counties to support efforts to fight COVID-19 needs an urgent review," said Lenku.
Lenku further stated that the health indices used by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) had ignored some susceptibility of some counties to COVID-19 cases.
The governor emphasized that the indices are for general health indicators that are not COVID-19 related and are misrepresenting the correlation between allocation of resources and the needs they are supposed to address.
As of June 8, 2020, Kajiado County had 92 confirmed cases of COVID-19, making it the third most prone county after Nairobi and Mombasa.
Despite this, the county received a meagre allocation of Sh52 million, while Nairobi, the worst-hit county, was allocated Sh294 million and Mombasa, the second most affected county, was allocated Sh100 million.
Lenku also highlighted that counties such as Kakamega, which have yet to report any cases, were allocated Sh262 million, while Kisii was allocated Sh156 million.
Uasin Gishu, with less than 50 cases, was allocated Sh125 million.
Speaking in Kajiado during a briefing on the pandemic's preparedness in the county, the governor said Kajiado continued to be exposed to the virus due to its porous border with Tanzania.
"In fact, 70 per cent of our cases are related to the Namanga and Oloitokotik borders where majority are truck drivers," he said.
