County-Hogs 411: If the guys at the national assembly have accepted and moved on with their public moniker, the MPigs, its also fair if their county counterparts accepted and moved on as MC-Apes! But I would rather the whole team runs away with the moniker, County-Hogs, in all fairness! This is because they have decided to eat alone, plan alone, own projects alone, waste county funds alone and own the Governors, ALONE! It must not escape their memory that when they inform and involve the residents, those projects and the Governors become peoples property! As we stand now, all county projects either belong to governor so and so or MCAs this and that! For instance, the Machakos police cars are called mutuas rides, the same goes to the ambulances and much as we would want to call maruba land a peoples park, real Machakos residents call it Kwa-MutuaPark, so is Machakos stadium! Lack of public participation in county finances became evident early this year when the enactment of the Finance Bill sparked riots in several counties across the country. As means of raising revenue most of counties had introduced new taxes and levies without consulting the affected stakeholders. Nakuru County Government headed by Governor Kinuthia Mbugua was forced to review some of the contentious provisions following protests from furious traders. Traders in Kiambu, Machakos and Kakamega also took to the streets claiming they were not involved in drafting of the Bill as required by law. There were dramatic scenes in October last year as various County Assemblies rushed to pass the Finance bill and approve the County Integrated Development Plan. Due to limited time most of the counties did not hold public forums to seek input from the residents. Notably turf wars stall counties access to Sh3.4b equalisation fund The law requires the budget be based on the County Integrated Development Plan, which means the priorities in the plan should be the same as the priorities in the budget. The Finance Bill, when passed, authorises the county government to collect revenue. In bid to meet crucial budget timelines, some of the assemblies were summoned for special sessions to pass the crucial Bill in October last year. The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution assigns to counties the role of ensuring community participation in governance. The County Government Act requires the counties to encourage public participation through meetings where plans and budgets can be discussed. However most of the counties have not constituted the County Budget and Economic Forum (CBEF), which is supposed to provide means for consultation by the county government. The CEBF is the most appropriate forum for public engagement throughout the budget cycle. Pinchme.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 16:29:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015