Gov. Waiguru Statement on Alteration of Budget 2020/2021 By County

Press Release

The County Executive presented the FY 2020/2021 proposed budget to the County Assembly for approval. Instead of approving the budget, the assembly submitted a completely new budget with a variation of over 30% per vote, going against the requirement of Regulation 37(1) of the Public Finance (County Government) Regulations 2015 which limits the assembly variations to 1% of the ceilings.

Apart from this being illegal, I cannot approve the specific alterations done to the budget for the following reasons;

Health

1. The County Assembly moved over Ksh. 300 million meant to pay salaries for our health workers to construction of ward offices. This is completely unacceptable given that the health workers have put their lives on the line to fight against the covid-19 pandemic and that it would further put the lives of Kirinyaga residents in danger for not being able to access health services.
2. The Assembly removed Ksh. 20 million meant for payment of casual workers’ wages who are critical in cleaning our environment and our health facilities especially during this time as we deal with COVID-19 virus. 3. The Assembly removed Ksh. 14.6 million for fuel for ambulances, water bills and oxygen for our hospitals. This is unacceptable since it means paralyzing operations in our critical health sector.

National Government and Donor Funded programmes

1. Coffee- Kirinyaga is one of the counties under the Presidential program on coffee revitalization. The county was required to raise Ksh. 100M matching funds as part of the programme of which only Ksh. 50M was initially allocated to enable us participate. The removal of Ksh. 50 million allocated for conditional matching funds will mean that about 68,000 coffee farmers from Kirinyaga will not benefit from the program which includes access to Cherry Advance Revolving Fund.
2. The Assembly removed Ksh.184 million allocated as conditional matching funds for donor funded programs under Health, Agriculture and Education. These funds were already signed for between National Government and Donors and as a county we are expected to provide the matching funds if we are to benefit. The action by the assembly means that these projects will not be carried out in Kirinyaga. This will affect over 3,000 farmers, over 7,000 youth in our polytechnics and residents who require health services.

Statutory Obligation

1. Taxes- The assembly removed Ksh 58M meant for payment of taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which is a contravention of the law and will result to penalties.
2. Legal fees- Last week the President signed into law the Office of the County Attorney Act which requires that counties have fully staffed and funded County Attorney office to handle legal matters in the county. The assembly removed Ksh 59M meant for legal fees which will hamper the county government’s efforts in pursuing the over 200 cases mostly on recovering public land. These include Thingirici Land meant for establishment of the industrial park, Mwea Trust Land which affects over 10,000 families and South Ngariama Settlement Scheme cases which involve acres of land worth billions of shillings belonging to the people of Kirinyaga.
3. Pending Bills- The Assembly removed Ksh. 30 million meant for payment of pending bills which is a contravention of a Presidential directive set as a condition for accessing the exchequer for the county.

I have already appealed to the senate, the Controller of Budget and national Jubilee Party leadership to intervene and save the county from grinding into a halt.

I urge the County Assembly to reconsider their proposals and put the people of Kirinyaga first.

Anne Waiguru, E.G.H, OGW
GOVERNOR- KIRINYAGA COUNTY.