Senate speaker Kenneth Lusaka has convened yet another special sitting on Monday to try and resolve the emotive County Revenue allocation formulae. The sitting will start at 10am In a special sitting on, August 17th, 2020.
Lusaka convened the sitting via a gazette notice seen on Friday on Friday 14th august 2020.
“In accordance with the standing orders 30(5) of the Senate Standing Orders, the business specified in this Notice shall be the only business before the Senate during the special sitting, following which the Senate shall stand adjourned until Tuesday, 8th September, 2020, at 2:30 pm in accordance with the Senate calendar,”
The senate will be meeting for the record 9th ninth time in a bid to unlock the impasse that’s suffocating county operations.
The speaker adjourned the house on Tuesday after more new amendments were introduced to the formulae that has left the hose divided along county lines.
He ruled that it was not practical to conclude the matter. “We have before us a very important debate that we are having. Looking at the requests here and given that we have two more amendments to go, and given the ruling I gave 2 weeks ago. It’s not practical that we can be able to conclude this matter,”
The ruling that adjourned the house did not go down well with a section of legislators’ faulting the speaker’s decision terming the it not procedural.
Firebrand Narok senator Lederman Ole kina has since taken to twitter saying “It’s really sickening that we can’t have an Independent Parliament in the 21st century in Kenya! The leadership has failed and soon when they are unable to get their way they will push for another adjournment… this time for a very long time and we return to dictatorship! ABSURD” he wrote
. “I need your help on Monday. Just give me cover. If they adjourn unceremoniously, I will grab the mace. We shall install a temporary speaker and pass a formula for Kenya,” Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot responded to the tweet via tweeter.
The third generation formulae debate has put the senate wisdom on the spot.
Party leaders have failed to woo their members to back the one man one shilling one vote formulae tabled by Irungu Kang’ata, the formulae propose to share revenue on population basis something that would lead to marginalized counties with less population loose a chunk of their initial allocation.
The divisions in the House have resulted in numerous amendments to the report by the Finance committee chaired by Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru. Senators rejected a suggestion that sees 39 counties gain and eight covered by the Equalization fund, while the Kibiru report puts counties gaining at 29 from 22
Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja, Meru senator Mithika Linturi have also introduced amendments that team Kenya as proponents believe is a win win formulae.
However, claims of bribery, intimidation and threats have become the order of the day.
