Governor Lenku accuses Kajiado MCAs of politicking at the expense of drought-hit farmers
Governor Joseph Ole Lenku and the county assembly Budget and Appropriation Committee have sharply differed over the Ksh100 Million allocation meant for the livestock off-take program.
The county assembly on Thursday declined to approve the funds allocated by Lenku's administration to cushion farmers against the effects of drought citing lack of proper guidelines on utilization.
The assembly instead said the Ksh310million emergency fund approved in the supplementary budget should cater for drought mitigation and further argued that the executive allocation was not in line with the PFM act 2012.
However, Lenku has accused the MCAs of indulging in partisan politics at the expense of suffering farmers who are losing cattle to the ravaging effects of drought.
"In our effort to support our livestock owners who are losing their animals in droves, we re-allocated Ksh 100 Million from our 2022-2023 budget for the livestock off-take program. Unfortunately, due to partisan politics by the County assembly leadership, this money was dropped from the supplementary budget," Lenku said.
The County chief claims the money was meant to boost the national government's Ksh350Million off-take initiative that was recently launched by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua at Ilbisil.
Lenku says the assembly move has left desperate farmers on the verge of poverty as they risk losing their entire herds and not being in a position to restock the same.
"This has left our livestock owners highly exposed to further losses of their livestock as this money would have cushioned owners of 5,000 animals from total loss of their livestock. Let the MCAs know there comes a time the survival of a community is more important than partisan party politics engineered by external political forces,’’ the County chief added.
The health department was the biggest beneficiary of the supplementary budget getting a Ksh385 Million allocation with the water department getting a Ksh166 million allocation.
Kenya Kwanza commands the majority of MCAs in the county assembly of Kajiado.
