Parliament Approves the County Governments additional allocation Bill

Nairobi, 

Wednesday, 14 August, 2024 

McCreadie Andias 

The National Assembly has today passed the County Governments additional allocation Bill which will provide counties with Kshs. 46.6 billion for the 2024/2025 financial year. 

The Senate Bill No. 19 of 2024 will also make provisions for transferring conditional and unconditional allocations from the National Government's share of revenue and from development partners to the County Governments, for the Financial Year 2024/25.

However, the initial figures in the report have been revised down from Kshs. 61.9 billion which follows approval of the Supplementary budget in light of the rationalization of the finances. 

The allocation to the County Aggregation Industrial Parks (CAIPs) programme has been reduced from Kshs. 4.5 billion to Kshs. 2 billion. 

The bill aims to support county governments in delivering essential services to citizens by providing funds for various projects.

Key programmes are set to receive allocations including completing construction of county headquarters in five counties.

Through the Bill, County Aggregation Industrial Parks will be established in 18 counties to promote local businesses and create jobs.

The County Governments Additional Allocations Bill, 2024 also supports the expansion of the CHP program to improve access to primary healthcare.

Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie who supported the bill noted that appropriation of the CAIPs aligns with the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda that seeks to move this country into a middle-income country.

"I stand to support that this Bill be approved by Parliament with the requisite amendments. BETA has drawn up value chains intentionally, and agriculture happens to be one of those value chains. 

We want farmers to add value to the products and this will provide employment and walk the country towards industrialization." Stated Kiarie.

The proceedings also noted that a lot of money is being channeled to the Counties, hence the need for the Senate to undertake its oversight role effectively, to ensure that the resources are managed properly.

The Bill will now proceed to the Senate for consideration before a bicameral approval is reached.