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Let population size determine counties’ funds, Treasury told

Henry Rotich

Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati has petitioned the National Treasury to prioritise population density in the sharing of revenue among the 47 counties.
Speaking at Kiminini in Trans Nzoia County, Governor Wangamati said that while Bungoma is third in population size after Nairobi and Kakamega counties, revenue allocation does not reflect this.
CRA PROPOSAL
The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has previously proposed to reward counties that make an effort to increase their locally generated revenues.
The CRA is constitutionally mandated to make recommendations on the basis of equitable sharing of revenue between the two levels of government and among the 47 county governments
"We call upon the National Treasury to review its revenue sharing formula, for population size to be given more weight than is the case currently," he said on Tuesday.
The distribution of county equitable revenue share allocation for Financial Year 2018/19 is based on the current formula, which uses six parameters with specific weights: Population (45 per cent), basic equal share (26 per cent), poverty (18 per cent), land area (8 per cent), fiscal responsibility (2 per cent) and development factor (1 per cent).
Counties are supposed to generate revenue from property rates, parking fees, licences, rent, water and sewerage fees, entertainment taxes and service.
Nonetheless, effective revenue collection has been a challenge for most county administrations.
BUNGOMA MATTERS
Meanwhile, Governor Wangamati has challenged new chief officers to build one cohesive team of employees.
He said he had noted four distinct camps among county employees during his one year in office.
“I am a student of leadership and, over time, I have noted the existence of different camps among our employees,” the county chief said.
“There is the team of employees seconded to the county by the national government, employees inherited from the old Bungoma Municipal Council, employees who joined the county with our first governor Kenneth Lusaka and those who joined the county following my election,” he noted.
“Clearly, the different camps do not seem to be reading from the same script,” he said, adding that no effort should be spared to unite all these employees in a bid to serve the people of Bungoma.

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