Kisumu County executive tabled a Ksh. 10.2 billion budget before the Budget and Appropriation Committee. This is the Kisumu County budget for financial year 2019/2020. A large portion of the budget (Ksh. 8.8 billion) will be financed by Equitable Share (Ksh. 6.6 billion) and the balance will be in form of conditional grants.
Kisumu County is planning to raise Ksh. 1.4 billion from Own Sources of Revenue (OSR). This is another area where many people have doubts whether the county will raise the money. Land rates, parking fees and bus parks are some of the top sources of revenue.
As a public finance analyst I have doubts whether the county will be able to raise all resources as outlined in the budget. For example, the county has never found a strategy on how to raise its target of Ksh. 30 million from boda boda self regulation. In FY 2017/2018 the target was Ksh. 25 million but no cent was raised because the boda boda operators vehemently refused to pay.
On the boda boda issues many local residents I interviewed felt that if mama mboga pays county revenues then everyone else must do the same.
As you may be aware, the county assembly approves all plans, policies and budget before they become effective.
The Assembly can approve these estimates with or without amendments. This time round, the budget committee is not happy because the budget is shoddily done.
What is the problem?
There are omissions, an entire department does not have targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPI). I support the committee 100% considering that lack of targets will make it hard in future for the Assembly and the general public to play their oversight role.
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