This archive report was first published on 2 July 2020.
Published on July 2, 2020, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has rejected the 2020/2021 budget passed by the county assembly, citing illegal and unconstitutional changes.
The governor accused the assembly of arm-twisting the executive for political scores or selfish gain after they lost their bid to impeach her.
Waiguru noted that the MCAs disregarded the law and used the budget to hit back at her instead of serving the electorate.
The governor pointed out that the MCAs have no power to arbitrarily amend the budget to suit their interest, especially after allocating themselves Ksh200 million in disregard of the Public Finance Management Act.
She stated that the County Assembly amended the budget estimates to allocate themselves Ksh569 million in total, citing Regulation 37(1) of the PFM Act 2015, which limits the County Assembly variations on budget votes to 1 percent of the ceilings.
“The estimates for the County Executive and the County Assembly are covered by the ceilings which are contained in the County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) and therefore, these amounts are ring-fenced by the act and cannot be amended in the budget estimates,” she said.
Waiguru also accused the assembly of illegally assigning itself the role of developing a County Appropriation Bill, which is the role of the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) of Finance.
She vowed not to allow the illegality to continue, saying that she will reject the budget and resend it back to the assembly with a memorandum.
