Mt. Kenya governors revive one man, one shilling debate

Speaking at a roundtable meeting with CRA commissioners in Nairobi, the governors insisted on a formula that speaks to the region’s prowess for production, insisting the three earlier formulas have greatly been designed to take away from the region.

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga called on the CRA to allocate resources as per a region’s contribution to the national cake as opposed to equal treatment at the table.

“We are 47 counties and it is pointless to start speaking about sharing when any of those counties is not working. Let us review what is the basic share for every county to be operational regardless of whether Lamu has 110,000 people, Nyeri has 1 million people and Kiambu has 3 million,” he said. 

“I have been a governor for two terms and the minimum you need for a county to be operational is Ksh.7 billion.” 

Consequently, the chairman of the Central Region Economic Bloc (CEREB) has urged for the adoption of a baseline shareable revenue amount that would largely go into the operations of a county before any other parameter is used.

“Devolution is here to stay and I would urge you not to continue giving counties which have already developed more money...instead let us uplift those which are crippled,” said Tharaka Nithi Deputy Governor Nyaga Muisraeli.

On its part, the CRA now says it will seek common views from the different economic blocs with the aim of including their views in the final report that would form the 4th generation revenue sharing formula.