Laikipia County demands more allocation from equitable share kitty

Nanyuki, Thursday, May 11, 2023

KNA by Martin Munyi

Laikipia County government wants their allocation from the equitable share kitty increased on the basis of marginalization levels of the area.

Governor Joshua Irungu wants the National Treasury to factor the marginalization element when allocating the resources to facilitate fairness and demanded a review of the policy framework.

The Governor made the proposal when he met members from the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), stressing that the area was largely marginalized save for the two major towns of Nanyuki and Nyahururu that lie on the peripheries of the vast county.

“The formula used to determine the allocation of the equitable share does not factor in the aspect of marginalization in some counties such as Laikipia and that’s why I feel it should be reviewed so that we can get at least double the money from the Treasury,” Irungu said when he met the CRA team at his Nanyuki office on Wednesday.

According to data from the county finance department, Laikipia received Sh5.1 billion as equitable share for the 2022/23 financial year but Governor Irungu feels that’s a drop in the ocean based on the vastness of the area and under development.

“Laikipia covers an area of 9,462 kilometres square making it the 15th largest county in the country and nearly the size of the former Central Province and perennial banditry attacks by communities from neighbouring counties has made us lag behind in development since most of our budget is directed to humanitarian assistance to affected residents,” Governor Irungu said.

The county boss argued that the parameters based on population figures by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) used to determine equitable share needed to be reviewed to factor in issues such as the vastness of a county and the level of development therein, therefore, increase the Equalization Fund.

“The allocation we are currently getting is too little to carry out any meaningful development and that is why we feel the formula used is disadvantageous to Laikipia. Our two major towns lie on the borders and thus serve large populations from neighbouring counties whose population figures were not captured here,” he said.

CRA Commissioner Dr Isabel Waiyaki who led the team to Laikipia said that the Commission was going around the country seeking views on the proposed marginalization policy before being adopted.

“We are going across all the 33 counties defined as marginalized to seek views on a proposed policy by meeting leaders and the public through focus group discussions on how marginalization can be addressed in a bid to bring them at par with the rest of the country,” Dr Waiyaki said.

The CRA Commissioner observed that 19 sub-locations in Laikipia spread in Laikipia North and West sub-counties are classified as marginalized and have a total population of 72,917.

She added that her Commission was developing the third marginalization policy since the start of devolution guided by parameters of the data from the KNBS 2019 census and subsequent demographic surveys and would inform on the distribution of the Equalization Fund.

Dr Waiyaki advised the county government to present a memorandum to the Commission on whether the formula used the previous year was effective and if not, propose ways of improvement.

Courtesy; K.N.A