The Mount Kenya governors drawn from the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party have now adopted the one-man-one-shilling agenda propagated by the oppositions’ Azimio One Kenya Coalition which was opposed by the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
The unprecedented change of tune comes at a time the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) begin collecting views on the fourth revenue sharing formula.
Speaking at a roundtable meeting with CRA commissioners at Nairobi’s Movenpick hotel, the governors insisted on a formula that speaks to the region’s prowess for production, insisting the three earlier formulas have greatly been designed to take away from the region.
Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga called on the CRA to allocate resources as per a region’s contribution to the national cake as opposed to equal treatment at the table.
Consequently, the chairman of the Central Region Economic Bloc (CEREB) has urged for the adoption of a baseline shareable revenue amount that would largely go into operations of a county before any other parameter is used.
On its part, the CRA now says it will seek common views from the different economic blocs with the aim of including their views in the final report that would form the fourth generation revenue sharing formula.
“It is pointless to speak about sharing if none of those counties are working. We must sit here and ask ourselves, for one county to be working in Kenya today, what is the minimum we must give every county.” Kahiga said.
The Nyeri governor added that the Mt Kenya region has often been misconstrued as a developed region.
This, he said, is not the case as the region has many poor people who need help.
“The pain we have is not getting what we deserve. The first formula was about how we take from central to other places. An injustice is an injustice.” He added.
“Do you know how many have jiggers, live in slums and are suffering because they cannot get medical care?” He posed.
The county boss said the time is nigh for CRA to give every county its rightful shares.
“Have you ever asked yourself who bakes the cake? Once we ask ourselves that question, then we will not give someone a panga and another a knife to go and eat the cake. That will tell us that one is advantaged while the other is disadvantaged.” He noted.
Kahiga further called for the adoption of a baseline shareable revenue amount that would largely go into the operations of a county before any other parameter is used.
Present at the meeting were Tharaka Nithi Deputy Governor Nyaga Muisraeli and his Laikipia counterpart Reuben Kamuri.
On its part, the CRA now says it will seek common views from the different economic blocs with the aim of including their views in the final report that would form the 4th generation revenue sharing formula.
