Governors to Shut Down Counties from September 16 over Revenue Row

BY GEOFFREY ISAYA

All county operations will be paralysed from Monday, September 16 if the stalemate over the Division of Revenue Bill 2019 is not resolved. Counties.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Council of Governors Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said county governments are cash-strapped and will have no option but to shut down if the ongoing revenue row is not resolved within the next two weeks.

"The County Governments will not be able to pay salaries at end of this month going forward. Beyond, the 16th of September 2019, if the matter is not resolved the County Governments will have no option but to shut down," read the statement.

The Senate and the National Assembly are locked in a push-and pull over the amount of money that should be disbursed to the counties.

While the National Assembly has stuck to a Ksh.316.5 billion allocation to counties, the Senate insists the devolved units should be handed Ksh.335.6 billion.

The matter is already before a mediation committee composed of representatives of both houses of Parliament.

Meanwhile, in various counties workers are yet to receive their July and August salaries even as delivery of essential services remain grounded.

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President Uhuru Kenyatta has since declared that the government does not have unlimited resources and will therefore not allocate any additional revenue to counties.