This archive report was first published on 24 July 2019.
On July 24, 2019, the Senate passed its version of the Division of Revenue Bill 2019 in a record 40 minutes, allocating Sh335 billion as the equitable shareable revenue for counties in the 2019/20 financial year.
The move came as the National Assembly was introducing a similar bill with a proposal to allocate Sh316 billion as funds for counties.
The National Assembly's bill was introduced by the chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Mr. Kimani Ichung'wa, after Speaker Justin Muturi slammed the 2013 Supreme Court advisory on the role of the Senate in the enactment of the bill.
Mr. Muturi argued that the advisory was dangerous and akin to killing devolution.
The initial bill, drafted by the National Treasury, did not sail through after the two Houses failed to agree on the amount of funds due to counties.
The National Treasury allocated Sh310 billion, down from Sh314 billion that counties received in the 2018/19 fiscal year.
However, while the National Assembly supported the reduced figure, the Senate rejected the Sh310 billion because it was a reduction from the previous year's amount and contrary to the Commission of Revenue Allocation's (CRA) recommendation of Sh335 billion.
Chairman of the Budget and Finance committee, Mohamad Muhamud, faulted the decision by the National Treasury to reduce the base for equitable share, terming the move as illegal since both the Division of Revenue Act, 2018, and the County Allocation of Revenue Act, 2018, were not amended to take care of the revised figure.
“Revision of the equitable share base is illegal because neither the Senate nor the National Assembly was amended,” Mr. Muhamud told the House.
While the National Assembly has stuck on the Sh316 billion, the Senate has stuck on Sh335 billion, arguing that the figure takes care of inflationary conditions for counties.
The Sh335 billion was arrived at using the Sh314 billion, which is in DORA 2018 and CARA 2018 as the base and then factoring in a 3-year inflation rate at the current 6.9 per cent.
