This archive report was first published on 16 August 2019.
On August 16, 2019, Attorney General Paul Kihara Kariuki issued an advisory opinion to the Senate Clerk, ruling out the possibility of County Governments receiving at least 50% of the allocation due to them in the 2019/2020 financial year.
The Attorney General cited lack of an enabling legislation as the reason for his ruling, stating that releasing the money would violate the constitution and the public finance management act.
According to the advisory opinion, there is no legal basis under the current legal architecture for the National Treasury to administratively advance funds to the county governments.
However, the Attorney General offered a series of options to avert a financial crisis in the devolved units, including Parliament registering a consent at the Supreme Court for the release of Ksh.310B to counties from the Consolidated Fund.
Alternatively, the National Assembly's budget committee has proposed amendments to the Public Finance Management Act to facilitate the release of the guaranteed 15% share of National revenue to Counties.
The Attorney General has backed the proposed amendments and advised lawmakers to cut short their break to deliberate on the proposed changes to the law.
