Governors surviving on bank overdrafts as Treasury fails to release funds

A section of Governors from the Lake Region has expressed concern over delayed disbursement of funds to counties by the exchequer saying activities could soon grind to a halt if the national government fails to act promptly.

Kisii Governor Simba Arati and his Migori counterpart Dr. Ochilo Ayacko, speaking during the 11th Lake Region Economic Block (LREB) summit in Migori on Wednesday, said they're unable to run a myriad of activities in the counties since they’re broke.

According to Governor Ayacko, the national government is allegedly not interested in seeing development projects being rolled out in the counties.

He said that Migori County, for instance, has not received funds since November 2022, and now the county cannot roll out development projects.

Governor Ayacko said the health sector is among the most affected with the delay in the disbursement of funds by the National Treasury.

His remarks were echoed by Kisii Governor Simba Arati who said that many counties could be forced to stop operations if the delay in disbursement goes any longer.

Governor Arati said that many projects have stalled, further adding that counties cannot even pay salaries on time.

The Kisii Governor said many counties are now surviving on overdraft from banks to run some of their critical programmes.

He hence appealed to the national government to release the funds as soon as possible so that people can get services from county governments.