Kiambu leaders renew calls for one-man-one-shilling budget ratio
Leaders and residents of Kiambu county have reignited the one-man one-vote one-shilling national resources sharing formula which they insist holds key solutions to poor allocation of funds to highly populated constituencies that have been getting raw deals.
Led by Juja MP George Koimburi, the leaders decried the current formula for the allocation of national government CDF has continued to deny fair distribution of education bursaries to bright learners from poor backgrounds.
Koimburi noted with concern that students from highly-populated constituencies have been receiving peanuts in form of education aids from the government, a move that has significantly affected their performance as they are often sent home to collect school fees.
Speaking when he distributed Sh23 million worth of cheques to students studying in boarding schools, the MP called on legislators to back the proposals brought in Parliament to have the one-man one-shilling formula implemented or facilitate renaming of populous constituencies.
“We are asking our parliamentary colleagues to help us pass this Bill for equity in distribution of resources. We cannot continue to give Sh2,000 as bursary cheque to learners while in other constituencies, students get full scholarships. This is unfair,” said Koimburi.
Review of boundaries
The MP clarified that while they have been seeking review of boundaries to have new constituencies created for more allocations, if the government can agree to allocate populous constituencies more resources, the heavy load of distributing the money they get would become easy to carry.
He noted some of the constituencies such as Thika, Ruiru, Juja, Kasarani, Mwea among others are overpopulated and the MPs are having a hard time in serving them with the meager resources they are receiving. Ruiru is currently the most populated constituency with a population of close to 700,000 residents.
Koimburi sought urgent solutions to the imbalances in sharing of the NGCDF kitty amongst constituencies saying that regions with huge populations should be given the ‘Super Constituencies’ status to enable them get a lion share of the kitty.
His sentiments were echoed by residents who decried having received very little to support their children in school.
“We have received the cheques today and we really appreciate the efforts of our MP but the money is not enough. We are still going to have our children sent home to collect more. We are asking the government to increase this kitty so that our children can remain in school uninterrupted,” Alice Murugi, a resident, said.
