Government lauded for timely disbursement of county funds

Eldoret

Tuesday, August 15, 2023,

KNA by Kiptanui Cherono

Nominated Senator Margret Kamar has lauded the Kenya Kwanza government for its timely disbursement of funds to county governments.

The Senator said the decision by the Kenya Kwanza government to ensure funds due to the county governments is disbursed on time is a game changer in project implementation by the counties.

Counties will now be able to implement and complete projects on time since they will not have any excuse that the National government delayed funds.

Speaking in Eldoret during a pre-conference interactive session with women members of county assembly (MCA’s) from Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Uasin Gishu counties, Prof. Kamar, who was flanked by Kenya Women Senators Association (KEWOSA) chairperson Hamida Kibwana said the current government committed itself to ensuring all pending county monies is released by 30th June this year, “and as of now all funds meant for counties for the first quarter this financial year were released in early July.”

“The forthcoming Devolution conference, unlike the previous one where counties complained of delays in releasing of funds leading to suppliers not being paid and contractors terminating projects, will be to laud the current government for committing to release funds on time to the counties,” said the nominated Senator.

Prof. Kamar observed that there were a lot of unfinished projects across the counties due to delays in funds disbursement, and hoped that they would now be completed.

“I urge the national government to continue with this commitment so that all stalled projects in the counties are completed to benefit wananchi,” she added.

On the recent proposals by the President's working party on education reform that the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, manage salaries and benefits for early child development education, ECDE, teachers Prof. Kamar assured that the ECDE function would not be moved from the county governments.

“The proposal is only meant for harmonization of ECDE teachers’ salaries to ensure there is uniform pay for in all counties unlike now where some counties pay as little as Sh. 6000 that is even below the minimum wage bill, but ECDE will remain a devolved function,” assured the Senator.

She said the Senate Committee on Education has summoned the TSC Secretary Dr. Nancy Macharia to expound on the proposal.

At the meeting with the women MCAs, Senator Kamar said as women Senators they were committed to capacity building the MCAs to enable them to understand their role of oversight, legislation, and representation better.

“As new women leaders the young MCA’s still face challenges in understanding their roles as legislators, hence the need to train them. After we capacity build, we hope they will be able to legislate more, represent more, and oversight more,” said Prof. Kamar.

Kimumu ward member of the County Assembly, MCA Sarah Malel said for the county assemblies, the national assembly, and the senate to achieve the two-third gender rule, more women need to ‘move out of the kitchen’ and compete for elective positions.

“I wish to urge fellow women to vie for leadership positions, no one will come and remove you from the kitchen to run for an elective seat unless you do so yourself,” she said, adding that the only challenge women still face in vying for political seats, was lack of money because a majority don’t own property, “otherwise women now are as educated as men, and can perform equally well in positions of leadership”, said Ms. Malel

Courtesy ; K. N. A