At least two months before the end of each financial year, there shall be introduced in Parliament a Division of Revenue Bill, which shall divide revenue raised by the national government among the national and county levels of government in accordance with this Constitution.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019 allocating Ksh 378.1 billion to county governments for 2019/20 financial year. From this total allocation, Ksh316.5 billion is the equitable share of national revenue while 61.6 billion are conditional allocations to the devolved units. The approval comes after a long struggle between the National Assembly and the Senate over the amount of funds to be allocated to counties in the current financial year.
The total allocation of Sh378.1 billion to county governments represents 36. 46 percent of the audited and approved revenue of the National Government for the financial year 2018/19 against the constitutional threshold of 15 percent.
County governments have been urged by the President to finalize their budget processes which should prioritize settlement of pending payments to suppliers such as the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency for medical supplies to facilitate the delivery of the ongoing Universal Health Coverage program and to also come up with better systems of collecting and managing their own revenue.
The new law reiterates the government’s commitment to scheduled disbursement of funds to counties to enable them to continue delivering services to Kenyans. National treasury has already disbursed over Sh50 billion to counties for the months of July and August.