Mt. Kenya governors have renewed their call to have the National Treasury base revenue allocation on population.
Led by Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia, who is the Central Kenya Economic Bloc’s chairman, the leaders want the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) to review the proposed formula.
“We want population size to determine revenue allocation to counties and be given more weight. After all, the government is for the people first,” said Governor Kimemia.
Others who have supported the move include Laikipia Senator John Kinyua and Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni.
Mr Kinyua and Mr Kioni want the 2019 national population census to inform the basis of revenue allocation to counties. The duo said the 2009 statistics are outdated.
It is widely believed that central Kenya is the most populated part of the country. Therefore the governors want to ensure their counties receive the lion’s share of the revenue.
The proposed formula indicates that poverty and population of devolved units will have less influence in determining what each of the countries’ 47 counties will get.
The new formula means the weight of poverty and population size in determining allocations will drop to 15 per cent and 18 per cent from 20 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
The CRA has also previously proposed to reward counties that have recorded marked improvement in revenue generation.
Currently, counties share revenue based on five parameters namely: population (45 per cent), equal share (25 per cent), poverty (20 per cent), land area (eight per cent), and fiscal responsibility (two per cent).
The proposed formula will see allocations to nine counties fall in the next financial year starting July 2019 — mainly for poor devolved units.
The CRA is constitutionally mandated to make recommendations on the basis of equitable sharing of revenue between the two levels of government and the counties.