This archive report was first published on 24 August 2020.
As the stalemate over revenue sharing continues, a 12-member committee formed by the Senate to resolve the issue has failed to reach an agreement.
The committee, which was formed a week ago, has been haggling over the best formula to share county revenue, but so far, no end is in sight.
According to sources, the National Treasury has refused to add an extra KSh 9 billion to the county revenue, a request made by the committee.
“Don’t be lied to, there is no agreement, and unless the Treasury agrees to our request and add us the Ksh.9 billion. I don’t see us agreeing,” a source privy to the happenings in the committee said.
The Senate was set to meet for a special sitting on Tuesday, August 25, but Speaker Ken Lusaka has announced that the meeting will not take place.
‘’We don’t want to make it a joke that we will be meeting without a possibility of us agreeing, we will only meet if there is an indication from the committee that they have reached an agreement,” Lusaka said.
Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kangata has proposed that the committee invites the leadership of the House to try and hammer out an acceptable solution.
“We will wait for as long as we can, because we just don’t want to hasten the process, but we want to arrive at the best possible solution for all counties,” Kangata said.
The Senate has met and failed to agree on the best formula for revenue sharing nine times, with the sessions often characterized by high emotions and name calling.
Counties continue to suffer as they have not received their shareable revenue for two months now, occasioning nonpayment of county staff and stalling of development projects.
