Senate Deputy Speaker Murungi urges prudent use of Sh400bn county funds

Senate Deputy Speaker and Chairperson of the Senate Liaison Committee, Kathuri Murungi, has urged governors to prudently utilise the recently allocated funds to counties.

Speaking during a three-day retreat of the Senate Liaison Committee in Uasin Gishu County, Murungi highlighted the Senate's pivotal role in increasing the allocation to Sh400.1 billion, up from Sh385 billion, for the 2024/25 financial year—the highest amount of shareable revenue since the inception of devolution.

"We increased the funds by Sh15 billion, and we want to see service to the people. We wish the Council of Governors were with us here today so that we could read the riot act to them," he said.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, the keynote speaker during the retreat, called on the Senate to establish mechanisms for receiving corruption reports from Anti-Corruption Committees in the counties.

"A mechanism must be established to ensure the Senate receives corruption prevention reports from all counties, enabling Senate deliberation to determine whether there is an attempt to fight corruption in counties," he noted.

Mudavadi assured the Senate of a close working relationship toward achieving its legislative agenda. To promote interlinkages between the parliament and the executive, he said his office has developed a Liaison Framework to cement the relationship between the executive and the parliament.

Senate Liaison Committee members following the session. (Photo: National Assembly)

The framework provides an effective mechanism to ensure Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and other senior executive ranks appear before Senate plenary and committee sittings. He further assured the Senate that his office would monitor the government's responsiveness to parliamentary matters.

Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot urged committee chairs to diligently perform their duties for the benefit of Kenyans. He called on the Senate Committee on Health to find ways of standardising health services and the treatment of doctors in counties. "The Committee on Health should lead us in discussing how to stabilise the health situation in all 47 counties," he said.

Retired Justice Stewart Madzayo, the Senate Minority Leader, also stressed the effective management of county funds and the need to strengthen oversight on monies allocated to the counties.

"We played our role to ensure counties were allocated more funds. It’s upon the governors to ensure these funds are used for their intended purpose," urged the Minority Leader.

During the event, the Controller of Budget, Margret Nyakang'o, conducted a session on the implementation and oversight of county government budgets.

The Chairperson of the Council of Governors, Anne Waiguru, Chairperson of the County Assembly Forum, Philemon Sabulei, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Devolution, Teresia Mbaika, and Kithinji Kiragu, the Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee, also attended the event.

The call to the governors for prudent utilisation of funds comes a week after the Senate and National Assembly reached an agreement on the division of revenue share, allocating Sh400.1 billion to counties in the financial year 2024/2025, an increase of Sh15 billion from the current financial year.