Governors protest slashing of county funds

Governors have expressed their displeasure with the Executive following the amendments to the 2018/2019 budget that has seen County Governments lose an estimated 9 billion.

The Governors have now vowed to reject a proposal to slash counties allocation by Sh9 billion.

Council of Governors (CoG) chair and Turkana Governor Joseph Nanok, expressed strong reservations on the proposal to cut funding to counties saying that the cuts could have far-reaching ramifications on the operations at the counties, which are already crippled by a cash crunch and saddled with huge unpaid bills.

Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki noted that reducing funding to counties will cripple essential services such as health, water and food security. He called on the National Government to postpone nonessential funding and seal leakages instead of burdening the tax payer.

“Our stand as COG is that the National Government should postpone nonessential funding to national infrastructure, seal loopholes in tax evasion and firmly deal with corruption.” He said.

County governments, State departments, Parliament and National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) are among areas targeted for budgets cuts as the National Treasury seeks cash to plug a Sh600 billion financial deficit.