This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
Published on July 13, 2020, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Mumbi Waiguru is seeking intervention from the Controller of Budget and the Senate in the ongoing budget stalemate with ward representatives.
The governor warned that further iterations of her proposal could ground county operations, as Kirinyaga County operations are already slowly grinding to a standstill following bitter differences between the Executive and Legislature.
According to Governor Waiguru, the Executive presented the FY 2020/2021 proposed budget to the county assembly for approval, but instead of passing the budget, the assembly submitted a completely new budget with a variation of over 30 per cent per vote.
Waiguru noted that the MCAs went against the requirement of Regulation 37(1) of the Public Finance (County Government) Regulations 2015, which limits the assembly variations to 1 per cent of the ceilings.
The governor said she won't approve the specific alterations made by the MCAs, citing unacceptable changes such as moving over Sh300 million meant to pay salaries for health workers to construction of their ward offices.
Waiguru also expressed concern over the removal of Ksh. 20 million meant for payment of casual workers' wages, who are critical in cleaning our environment and our health facilities especially during this time as we deal with Covid-19 virus.
She further noted that the MCAs had also re-allocated Sh14.6 million for ambulances' fuel, water bills, and oxygen for hospitals, which she said means paralyzing operations in our critical health sector.
