Road Maintenance Levy Fund: Counties score big as Treasury disburses Sh3.6 billion

Road Maintenance Levy Fund: Counties score big as Treasury disburses Sh3.6 billion

The funds, released on June 30, represent 35 per cent of the total Sh10.52 billion allocation owed to counties.

County governments have gained a crucial victory in their fight for road maintenance resources after the National Treasury released Sh3.68 billion from the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), following a court order that declared their earlier exclusion unlawful.

The funds, released on June 30, represent 35 per cent of the total Sh10.52 billion allocation owed to counties.

Council of Governors (CoG) chairperson Mutula Kilonzo Jnr confirmed the disbursement and insisted the push for the full amount is ongoing.

“They released 35 per cent on June 30, but we are fighting for the entire amount to be disbursed,” he said.

The release comes after a successful petition by the CoG and a section of Members of Parliament challenging the

National Assembly’s removal of county allocations from the RMLF in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 financial years.

The High Court ruled that the exclusion of counties from the fund violated the Constitution.

“This denied all county governments the funds needed to maintain county roads, while national road agencies continued receiving the RMLF, clearly against the constitutional framework,” the court noted in its decision.

The battle began on August 13, 2024, when the National Assembly passed a Bill that eliminated the entire county share of the RMLF, prompting outrage from devolved units and the Senate.

Although Parliament appealed the decision, it failed to obtain court orders to delay the implementation of the ruling.

Sources revealed that the National Assembly later reached out to counties seeking consent to retain 65 per cent of the fund, a move the CoG rejected. Governors have insisted on the full release of the Sh10.52 billion.

Meanwhile, the Senate has thrown its weight behind counties by preserving the full amount in the 2025 County Governments Additional Allocations Bill.

The Bill, now under discussion, seeks to ensure the transfer of both conditional and unconditional funds from the national government and development partners to the counties.

“The principal object of the Bill is to provide for the transfer of both unconditional and conditional additional allocations from the national government’s share of revenue and from development partners to county governments for the financial year 2024-25,” the Bill reads.

In addition to ordering the release of the funds, the High Court directed Parliament, the Treasury, and the Kenya Roads Board to initiate legal and policy changes to ensure counties are included in future allocations.

The court also ordered that the Kenya Roads Act and the Kenya Roads Board Act be revised within 12 months to match the Constitution.

It further directed the reclassification of all roads across the country to clearly separate national roads from those under the management of counties.

“An order is hereby issued directing the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport and the Attorney General to take appropriate measures within 12 months to reclassify all roads in Kenya in accordance with the constitutionally mandated framework,” the court ruled.

The judgment has been widely viewed as a key step in strengthening devolution and protecting county governments’ role in infrastructure development. It also sends a strong message on the need for equitable funding across all levels of government.

“The continued disbursement of the RMLF to national road agencies to the exclusion of county governments is discriminatory and unconstitutional,” the court stated.

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