Governors have said the Senate should be strengthened by ensuring it has veto powers on all the bills before the BBI is subjected to a referendum.
This was one of the two major resolutions made on Tuesday during the conclusion of the governors’ two-day meeting in Naivasha to discuss the BBI report.
Governors have also called for the introduction of the position of deputy ministers, who should be picked from Parliament.
They also want the Summit, the National Council for County Legislators and the Council of County Governors to be entrenched in the Constitution.
CoG has further said regional blocs should be entrenched in the Constitution.
On the disbursement of funds, it made the following recommendations:
- That the disbursement schedule as prescribed by legislation should be submitted to the Central Bank of Kenya by the Speaker of the Senate for implementation within 14 days of the passage of the Division of Revenue Act. We propose that in addition to the 35 percent all monies held by parastatals in national government departments performing devolved functions be transferred to Counties.
- That the County Governments ensure that not less than 10 percent of the total budget is allocated to agriculture, livestock, and fisheries function and that not less than 30 percent of the total budget is allocated to the health function and 2.5 percent to the youth function.
- To speed up the flow of funds to the counties, the governors proposed that the Office of the Controller of Budget decentralized to all the 47
- National Treasury to be established as an independent institution to serve both levels of government. Two IFMIS systems should be adopted; one for the National Government and another for County Governments.
- Wants county governments be authorized to borrow for development purposes.
Regarding the election, governors agreed that IEBC should be devolved to the 47 counties, that in public appointments, in order to implement the principle of inclusivity focusing on ethnic, cultural, geographical, and gender.
They also want deputy governors to remain as running mates to the governor and should be of either gender.
They further county governments to be involved in security matters at both national and county levels in the National Security Advisory Council and implement the County Policing Authority Independent Commissions.
They also want the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Police Service Commission to continue operating as is in the current.
They also propose the removal of collective criminal responsibility in the management of resources at the county government level to align with the principle of personal criminal culpability.
The governors’ resolutions come as ODM leader and Handshake partner Raila Odinga on Tuesday said the BBI report was basically a ‘done’ document with little chance of new ideas being incorporated.