President Ruto blames political unrest for delayed county funds

President William Ruto has said that social and economic factors that resulted from political unrest in the country caused delays in the disbursement of county funds.

Speaking at Monday's opening session of the 11th National and County Government Coordinating Summit, the president addressed the issue of delayed county funding.

"I appreciate your understanding that, due to unavoidable internal and external factors, our recent period has been marked by exceptionally challenging macroeconomic and public financial volatility, compounded by the severe socio-political challenges experienced earlier this year,” President Ruto said.

Ruto added that the irregular flow of resources, particularly conditional grants and development funds, undermines county governments' ability to support strategic national programs and related county projects effectively.

President Ruto listed some of the three key challenges derailing the devolution proramme in the country.

The significant challenges revolving around high public debt are; pending bills, unsustainable public wage bills, and inefficiencies in revenue collection and utilisation. 

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He called on collaborative efforts from various stakeholders to address the challenges.

“Unity of purpose and sustained collaboration between national and county governments are essential. Our continued cooperation will enable us to expand fiscal space, improve budgetary allocations, and ensure timely disbursements to counties,” he urged.

Despite the national finance challenges, the president said the country had achieved commendable strategic alignment on three key national priorities over the past two years.

He mentioned achieving food security while lowering the cost of living, creating jobs for youth, and making deliberate investments in critical sectors.

One of the achievements is distributing over 7 million bags of subsidised fertiliser to farmers hence increasing food production.

Others are the progress on the affordable housing programme in counties, the growth of MSMEs and manufacturing, and the redesigned Universal Health Coverage strategy.

The chair of the Council of Governors, Ahmed Abdullahi, also highlighted some issues that he wants the government to address for devolution purposes.

Governor Abdullahi asked for the gazettement of the unbundled functions transfer of the remaining county functions as well as the attendance resources.

The chair also called for the finalization of the long-standing valuation of assets of the defunct local authorities and devolved function exercise. 

Finally, the governors want the establishment of sector forums for sectors that do not have them, the configuration of existing sector forums, and a conclusion on the discussion of the county's additional allocation mediation process to allow the flow of grants.

The president then promised to complete the transfer of all devolved functions to county governments.

“ I am pleased to report that the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) has finalised the unbundling, delineation, and transfer of functions in line with my directive during our last Summit. I now direct the committee to take the next step of systematically identifying and transferring the requisite budgetary and other resources tied to these functions in the next fiscal year,” Ruto said.