Governors threaten shutdown as Treasury maintains it owes counties no money

Counties are in a crossfire with the National Treasury over funding to the devolved units that triggered an extraordinary meeting of the council of governors early Monday.

While governors decry of lack of money, Treasury CS John Mbadi says the national government owes counties no single penny.

“We have sent counties money...we don't owe counties any money except for November,” Mbadi said.

According to governors, counties are suffocating in financial frustrations.

“We can’t be in November and we are talking of disbursements back to August,” said Wajir Governor and chairperson of the Council of Governors, Ahmed Abdullahi.

In documents seen by Citizen TV, a total of Ksh.158 billion has been released to counties since July 2024 at the onset of the financial year.

The latest disbursement was Monday morning when the Council of Governors was breathing fire in Westlands Nairobi.

Treasury is accusing counties of low absorption of funds released to them.

According to the report from the Central Bank of Kenya, Nairobi City County for instance has 6.4 billion shillings lying idle at the CBK.