Counties in cash crisis as Treasury yet to disburse Ksh.98B allocation for 3 months

Thousands of employees in all the 47 counties have not been received their salaries as a cash crunch hits the devolved units.

Since the month of March, county governments have not received their allocations to settle salaries for their employees as well as run their operations.

For the month of March, the national government is yet to release Ksh.30.8 billion to the 47 devolved units.

In April, Treasury did not release Ksh.34.69 billion while in May counties are still awaiting a release of Ksh.32.7 billion.

In total, the national government is sitting on Ksh.98.3 billion meant for counties, leaving the devolved units starved of money.

The three months delay has led to county employees working without salaries as other critical services are grinding to a halt.

Bomet County Secretary Simon Langat, in a memo to staff seen by Citizen TV, said: “We note with a lot of regrets the delay of April salaries to our staff...this has been caused by the countrywide delay of 3 months (March, April, and May) disbursement to all counties by the National Treasury...”

Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok said: “We have been having challenges with cash flow...since March, county governments don’t have money...we have been very patient our staff and contractors have no money...”

In the neighboring Narok, County Secretary Mayiani Tuya said the county had paid salaries for the months of March and April through overdrafts that the financial institutions extended to them.

He said salary delay for May is inevitable as banks have declined to give more offer. Similar case is reported in Nyeri and Kisumu.

Counties now warn that if the situation continues beyond May, the devolved units will not be able to operate, prompting a shutdown.