Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has notified governors that the government does not have the funds to enhance county allocations to Ksh.425 billion.
DP Gachagua went bare knuckles on the governors during the MPs’ Post-Election Seminar in Mombasa on Thursday, alleging the Kenya Kwanza administration was stone broke and unable to meet their requests.
He maintained that the government could only afford to allocate between Ksh.380 and Ksh.385 billion, which is around Ksh.40 billion less than their expectations.
“They are asking for Ksh.425 billion. SRC is saying that in our scheme of mathematics, you can give Ksh.407 billion. The national government is saying that is good, 407 billion is even better, we can give it to you but we don’t have it, we only have 380 billion,” Gachagua said.
“So, if you want to hang us, we are helpless! If you want to remove our trousers and whip us on the buttocks, go ahead, we don’t have the money! Na sisi ni watu wa kuongea ukweli. What we don’t want to do is to cheat governors that we will give them money which we don’t have.”
The deputy president cited the difficult economy as he compared the current administration to former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime, which he said had difficulty disbursing only Ksh. 50 billion to counties, insisting that governors should not expect President William Ruto to pay more than the budget allocation.
“They were promised Ksh. 50 billion it never came. We are having problems giving them their disbursements every month, we are three months behind. So we are asking them, if what was in the budget, 370 billion, we are unable to give you, to give you 425 billion will just be a lie,” he added.
