National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has dismissed the Executive’s plans to decrease money provided to counties as part of budget cuts.
President William Ruto signed into law the Appropriations Bill, 2024, after rejecting the Finance Bill, 2024 and returning it to Parliament with a proposal to delete the clauses.
President Ruto also referred the County Allocation and Revenue Bill, which was based on expected revenues from the rejected Finance Bill, to Parliament for reduction.
The Bill specifies how national revenue will be shared by the national government and devolved units.
The President stated that the Finance Bill of 2024 was supposed to yield Sh346 billion, which will now be shared by all tiers of government.
“With respect to the National Government, the reduction will be borne by the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary, and our constitutional commissions,” he noted.
However, Wandayi said the government should not reduce the money allocated to counties as part of the budget rationalisation programme.
“They can remove everything else but they should not touch the money that has been passed and approved for the counties, the Sh 416 billion,” Wandayi said.
”They should bring a supplementary budget that removes allocations to offices like the First Lady, Second Lady and such offices.”
Ruto had explained that the Treasury will now be required to prepare a supplementary estimate that would reduce government expenditure by the amount of revenue that was expected to be generated by the rejected Finance Bill, 2024.
