Governors have expressed their desire to retain a larger share of revenue collected by the devolved units to guard devolution from a looming “death”.
According to the Council of Governors (CoG) chairman Wycliffe Oparanya they are set to push for inclusion of a clause in the Building Bridges initiative (BBI) that will mandate counties to remit 20 per cent of the total collected revenue to the national government.
Oparanya who spoke at Kwang’amoru Catholic Church in Teso South Constituency Sunday during a funds drive said the best reward for Kenyans in the 2010 constitution was the creation of devolved units, hence they should guard the concept at all cost. The fundsdrive realized over Sh.800 000.
“Signs that led to the death of devolved units in 1964 are replicating themselves. Counties have already gone for three months without funds, the only way out of this unending saga is for counties to push their residents to support BBI,” said the CoG chair.
Regarding the rising political temperatures across the country, Oparanya said time was ripe for Busia and Kakamega counties to either form the government or be in the next regime after having been in opposition for many years.
On his part, Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong told the congregation that his choice to walk the same path with Oparanya and Devolution Cabinet Secretary
Eugene Wamalwa was development oriented and not political.
“Our agenda is purely development and not politicking. No amount of intimidation will derail our resolve to improve the socio-economic status of Western region residents.
We need to revive our cotton industry in order to create jobs for the many unemployed youths and empower cane farmers economically,” Ojaamong stated.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait
