H. E. Amos Kimwomi Nyaribo has this morning hosted a delegation from the Commission on Revenue Allocation in his office.
The commission is undertaking county visits with the aim of assessing the impact of devolution on service delivery over the ten years.
Addressing the commission, Governor Nyaribo noted that despite some teething problems, devolution has played a major role in improving different sectors of the economy and he remains supportive.
"I wish devolution could have started 20 years ago, we could be somewhere. We have seen successful stories from different Counties, in Nyamira, there is progress in some key sectors, I believe one day we shall thrive and be proud because devolution is here to stay" He said.
Commenting on the issue of resources being allocated on a formula pegged on population , commonly known as one man, one vote, one shilling basis, Governor Nyaribo indicated that he supports it but some counties like Nyamira are set to lose cash vehemently because the statistics taken by the National Bureau of Statistics might not represent the actual population of Nyamira County.
"Until we have a thorough analysis on the Nyamira County statistics,making population as the main parameter in the allocation of the national cake is going to disadvantage us because we will lose money meant for development. " noted his excellency Nyaribo.
He therefore, concluded that he will engage the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to come over and train planning officers on how to produce and calculate accurate statistics on the Nyamira population.
He also hopes that a fairer revenue sharing formula will be proposed to enable them deliver services to the people.
The delegation from the Commission on Revenue Allocation was led by Commissioner, Jonas Kuko who indicated that,
"In exercising the principle of openness and public participation, we are seeking views from the County Governments on how they have spent their revenue since the advent of devolution, which is going to inform the preparation of formulas for revenue sharing ".
The Director of the commission Lineth Oyugi, asked the County to present an assessment report from various departments to showcase how they have spent their revenue share over the ten years of devolution.
"Since the advent of devolution, substantial resources have been allocated to County Governments to provide services to citizens, we are here to listen how the County spent the money for our assessment", said ms. Lineth.
The assessment will analyse and document the level of service delivery across six sectors namely:health, agriculture, water, roads, education and urban services in the counties.
The output from the assessment will form part of the background report that will inform the preparation of the fourth basis for revenue sharing among county Governments.
Accompanying the Governor was the County Secretary Dr. Jack Magara and CECM for PSM Dr. Geoffrey Morara.