This archive report was first published on 22 July 2019.
On July 22, 2019, a heated debate erupted at the Embu County Assembly chambers over the National Assembly's decision to reduce budget allocation for counties.
Ward reps, led by Deputy Speaker Steve Simba, argued that depriving counties of development funds was akin to sabotaging President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four agenda.
"The Big Four agenda's main pillars of healthcare, agriculture, housing, and industrialization are all devolved functions," said Mr. Simba.
He questioned the logic behind retaining money at the national level when most of the country's development projects were in counties.
"Champions of devolution envisioned a situation where there would be more money channeled to grassroots for development than to national level for State luxury," said the ward rep.
Mr. Simba urged the National Government to stick to the Commission on Revenue Allocation's (CRA) advisory to allocate Sh336 billion to the 47 county governments and end the row between the two Parliaments on the Division of Revenue Bill.
Other ward reps, including Muturi Mwombo and Newton Kariuki, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing that the counties' demand for more cash was constitutional.
They accused the National Assembly of being insecure and questioned why they were fighting the principle of division of revenue that was clear in law.
