Nairobi News

Uasin Gishu county has allocated Sh 35 million towards completion of the governor and his deputy’s official residences.

One June 27, 2023, the Uasin Gishu County finally tabled its Sh9.8 billion budget estimates for the 2023/24 financial year before the assembly with the health sector receiving lion share.

Last week, ward representatives joined their counterparts across the country to vote to adjourn the house business indefinitely until the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) reviews their salaries and allowances.

County Assembly Speaker Philip Muigei said that the decision to recall the house was necessitated by the fact that they want to ‘put the citizens first’ and ensure the service development.

“We received the Finance county executive to read the budget for the interests of the residents by ensuring that service delivery is not affected and also because of the upcoming devolution conference. The members are keenly following the ongoing negotiations over the matter and I want to assure the public that we will continue with our work,” said Mr Muigei, who adjourned the house until June 4.

On Tuesday afternoon, Micah Rogony, the county executive in charge of finance, tabled the budget, coming as a huge relief to residents and county governor Jonathan Bii who is keen to fulfil his campaign pledges under the ‘Nguzo Kumi’ development pillars.

“This budget has taken into account the aspirations of all the residents with a view to improving their living standards and enhancing service delivery. We are alive to the fact that there is scarcity of resources against development needs of the county, and in line with prudent and accountable use of resources, we will keenly monitor expenditures with a view to avoiding wastages even as we pursue expenditure productivity,” said Mr Rogony.

In the 2023/24 budget estimates, health sector received the lion share of budget at Sh2.5 billion, with the infrastructure and ICT sector getting Sh1.9 billion, Agriculture (Sh1.3 billion), Education got Sh1.17 billion and the General Economic and Commercial Affairs Sector got Sh501 million. Ward projects received Sh1.2 billion.

In the health, Sh212 million will go towards the purchase of drugs and non-pharmaceutical supplies while some Sh 145 million is for completion of Ziwa Level 5 and Kesses Level 4 hospitals that were initiated by former governor and now senator Jackson Mandago administration with Sh96 million for the construction of Turbo Level 4 and Moiben Level 3B hospitals.

In education and social protection, some Sh130 m has been set aside as bursary to enable bright children from poor background access education at all levels with Sh 2 million for setting up safe homes.

Some Sh50mmillion has been allocated towards organizing the devolution conference scheduled to take place in the month of August in Eldoret town. The 8 the Devolution Conference from 15 th to 19 th August 2023 themed ’10 Years of Devolution: The Present and the Future’.

“The conference will bring together local and international delegates to discuss, learn and share best practices on pertinent issues affecting counties and will provide trade and investment opportunities for communities in our county and the neighboring counties,” stated the county executive.

To create jobs for the young people, Sh250 million will go toward the development of County Aggregated Industrial Park, a joint venture with the National Government.

Some Sh25million will go towards the development of Macharia Estate to ensure that there is provision of decent and affordable housing, while Sh6 million will be used to refurbish the county residential houses.

To shore up on-source revenue, Mr Rogony said that they are in process of adopting the automated and a cashless payment system as well as streamline taxation and fee structure.

He also disclosed that they are working to harmonize cross-border levies and charges, update valuation rolls for rating, establish revenue one-stop shops, allocate resources to revenue functions and establish debt recovery/collection units.

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