Governors warn of county shutdown in 14 days over Ksh.78B withheld funds

The Council of Governors (CoG) has threatened to suspend services in county governments within 14 days if allegedly diverted funds to the devolved units are not immediately restored.

This came after the CoG held an extraordinary council meeting on Friday, where it raised concerns over the alleged diversion of funds and called on the national exchequer to release the County Equitable Share, which it claims is in arrears for three months, totalling Ksh.78.03 billion from January 2025. 

The CoG also condemned the diversion of Development Partners Conditional Grants, which are meant for county governments under the County Governments Additional Allocation Bill, 2025, arguing that the move is an attempt to systematically undermine service delivery across the 47 counties.

According to the CoG, the move is not an isolated incident but rather a continuation of deliberate and unjustified reduction of Equitable Share of revenue under the pretext of revenue shortfalls.

“From this deduction, County Governments will lose a whooping Ksh.38.4 billion of the Additional Allocations, of which Ksh.24 billion are Conditional Grants from Donors to support critical County projects in Healthcare, Agriculture, fisheries, Water, roads, Slum upgrading and Infrastructure Development,” said the Governors in a statement issued by CoG Vice Chairperson Mutahi Kahiga.

“The other Ksh.13 billion additional allocations from the National Government to fund jointly agreed ongoing projects such as industrial parks.”

To push its point home, the CoG pointed out that the national government had increased its own expenditure by Ksh.114 billion in the recently passed Supplementary Appropriation Act 2025.

“The National Treasury attributes these cuts on the pretext that Counties are not able to absorb the additional allocations in this Financial Year. These fallacious assertions depict how the National Government casually handles the Devolution Agenda,” said the governors.

The governors further accused the national government of creating a crisis, then blaming counties for failing to deliver essential services.

“It is becoming increasingly apparent that these systematic budgetary cuts are designed to cripple County Governments, hinder effective service delivery, and ultimately discredit and kill the Devolved system of Governance,” they said.

“By purposefully underfunding County Governments, the National Government is creating a crisis, only to turn around and put Counties on the spot for failing to deliver essential services. This is a well-orchestrated scheme aimed at frustrating devolution and rolling back the gains made over the past decade.”

Further, CoG praised the Senate for its continued support of devolution and urged it to stand firm in resisting what they called unconstitutional budget cuts.

“We wish to applaud and appreciate the Senate for continuously defending Devolution as provided in the Constitution. We implore the Senate to stand firm with the people of Kenya and the Council of Governors in resisting these unconstitutional budgetary reductions and safeguarding the gains of Devolution,” the governors said.