President Uhuru Kenyatta signs the Division of Revenue Bill, 2021 into law at State House, Nairobi, on April 30, 2021.
President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to the Division of Revenue Bill, 2021, on Friday, paving way for the submission of the financial estimates for the 2021/22 financial year. The law shares out Sh1.7 trillion in revenue raised nationally between the two levels of government as provided for in the constitution.
The national government will take home Sh1.39 trillion while counties equitable shareable revenue is pegged at Sh370 billion, the highest disbursement since the advent of devolution eight years ago.
However, the share due to counties is minus Sh40 billion in conditional grants, which was removed from the bill in line with a High Court order. The Council of Governors on Friday noted that counties would not lose the Sh40 billion in the financial year that begins July after MPs amended the revenue bill before passage.
CoG chairman and Embu Governor Martin Wambora said counties would not lose any funds, but rather, the conditional grants would be channelled to the devolved units through a different framework. “The council wishes to set the record straight that county governments are not losing any funds,” he said in a statement.
Mr Wambora explained that the transfer of conditional grants amounting to Sh39.9 billion (Sh7.5 billion from the national government and Sh32.3 billion conditional allocation from loans and grant from development partners) to the County Revenue Fund shall be facilitated through a different legal framework in line with Article 190. “A technical committee chaired by National Treasury is working on the new law,” he said. – nation.co.ke