The Council of Governors has accused President William Ruto’s administration of plotting to kill devolution by crippling them through budget cuts and delayed disbursements.

Governors now threaten to shut down county services if the National treasury fails to reinstate Sh38 billion diverted from county allocations.

A section of governors who spoke to The Standard said interference by the national government is a direct attack on devolution, and is aimed at crippling service delivery in all 47 counties.

COG Vice Chair Mutahi Kahiga said reducing their budgets by Sh38.4 billion is not an isolated case, but a continuation of deliberate and unjustified reduction of equitable share of revenue under the pretext of revenue shortfalls.

“It is becoming increasingly apparent that these systematic budgetary cuts are designed to cripple county governments, hindering effective service delivery, and ultimately discredit and kill the devolved system of governance,” 

Of the Sh38.4 billion deductions, Sh24 billion are conditional grants from donors, that is meant to support critical county projects in Healthcare, Agriculture, fisheries, water, roads, slum upgrading and infrastructure development.

The COG accused the national government of handling the devolution agenda casually and the treasury attributed the budget cuts to allegations that counties cannot absorb the additional allocations in the financial year 2025/26.

The COG has lamented that the budget cuts are a well-orchestrated scheme aimed at frustrating devolution, “by purposefully underfunding County governments, the National government is creating a crisis, only to turn around and put Counties on the spot for failing to deliver essential services.”

The Devolution agenda, which is enshrined in the Constitution of 2010, provides for the Counties to be adequately resourced. The COG has asked senators to resist the budgetary cuts to safeguard the gains of devolution.

This outcry comes barely a month after a pact signed by President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga, acknowledging that devolution, though intended to strengthen democratic governance and development at the grassroots, is systematically undermined and starved of funds.

Protecting and strengthening devolution was one of the key agenda of the ten-point pact that was signed.

“Devolution must continue to be protected from any possibility of claw back on devolved functions, and more effort must be put at devolving all funds allocated to a devolved function, increasing budgetary allocation to counties and ensuring the timely and predictable disbursement of devolved funds,” the memorandum signed on February 24th by President William Ruto and ODM party boss Raila Odinga read in part.

The COG has demanded that the National Treasury release equitable share, which is in arrears of 3 months, amounting to sh78.03 billion, for the months of January, February and March 2024.

Recently, senators have joined governors in the fight to demand a Sh465 billion equitable share, this is Sh60 billion up from Sh405 billion proposed by the national treasury in the budget Policy statement for the coming year.

This was approved by the Members of parliament as an equitable share of revenue.