NAIROBI, 31st March – The Senate has unanimously passed a Motion this afternoon, adopting the County Governments Grants Bill Report. With the approval of this agreed version of the Bill by both Houses, a legislative instrument shall allow county governments to access approximately KES. 39 billion in grants and loans from the national government and donors for the current financial year.

Critical resolutions made by the Mediation Committee include-

a) That the Bill shall be referred to as County Governments Additional Allocation Bill, 2021;

b) That annually, the National Treasury shall submit to Parliament the County Governments Additional Allocation Bill in addition to the Division of Revenue Bill and County Allocation of Revenue Bill; and

c) That the Bill should obligate the Cabinet Secretary to provide monthly reports on the disbursement of funds allocated to counties under this Bill.

At its fourth meeting earlier today, the Mediation Committee, chaired by Sen Charles Kibiru, agreed on the mechanism for transferring additional allocation (either conditional or unconditional allocation) to county governments.

“We have unanimously agreed that this Bill is good and is a critical step forward to releasing over 37 billion, which is expected to go to our counties,” said Hon Kanini Kega, who served as the Vice-chair of the Committee.