President William Ruto has waded into the debate on salary review for the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) offering no clear direction, however opting to throw the ball back to the Senate.
Speaking in Eldoret town, the President noted that the salary adjustment, though necessary to boost the independence of MCAs, was a difficult one to handle. “It is a very difficult to balance between giving more money to people who are already having something to take home at the end of the month versus looking for opportunities for majority of Kenyans who are unemployed,” he said.
“The Senate should provide a framework on this matter for the very independence of our county assemblies,” he said adding that he has also requested the Salaries Remuneration Commission to give proper advisory on salaries and wages. This he noted would correct imbalance in earnings where some top executives of parastatals pocket salaries higher than the President.
Ward representatives across all 47 devolved units have been up in arms over their reduced perks, the establishment of the Ward Development Fund fully anchored in law at 40 per cent of the county development budgets.
They also want a County Affirmative Action Fund established for Nominated MCAs, further that the county assemblies need to be granted financial autonomy to aid in the effectiveness of execution of their legal mandate in accordance with applicable laws that define their mandate.
The President made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the eighth devolution conference in Uasin-Gishu County currently underway in Eldoret Town. He reiterated the government’s commitment to stabilize the 47 counties over their pivotal role in promoting developments in remote parts of the country.
He said the Kenya Kwanza government will disburse funds meant for the devolved units on time and also transfer all functions meant for the counties but still discharged by the national government within sixty days.
“We have analysed and framed the functions that are still discharged by the national governments and their transfer to the counties will be within two months. We are currently working on the funding analysis.”
While promising to disburse the county funds on time to speed up implantation of projects, the government wants governors to fight corruption within their administrations to block wastage of public resources.
The government in July disbursed the Sh32 billion shareable revenue for counties.
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