Kirinyaga County Governor and Council of Governors Chairperson, Ann Waiguru. Kirinyaga County collected Sh472.8 million which is 86 percent of its annual revenue target.
Photo credit: File | Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
Twelve counties have emerged as the trendsetters in baking their cakes, hitting targets in raising their own revenues, at a time when the national government is struggling to feed them with an equitable share.
Uasin Gishu, Samburu, Isiolo, Kirinyaga, Turkana, Nandi, Vihiga, Meru, Wajir, Narok, Nyeri and Elgeyo-Marakwet- raised more than 75 percent of their own-source revenue (OSR) targets in the first three quarters of the 2023/24 fiscal year, the Controller of Budget (CoB) has reported.
This is an improvement from only three counties- Kirinyaga, Vihiga and Kitui- that raised at least 75 percent of their OSR targets during a similar period last year, which is the ideal performance rate to meet budget targets.
“During the reporting period, county governments generated a total of Sh41.4 billion from their OSR, which was 51.3 percent of the annual target of Sh80.78 billion,” CoB Margaret Nyakang’o notes in her report on counties’ budget implementation for the nine months ending March.
During the nine months, the 12 counties collected Sh8.8 billion in OSR cumulatively, out of the Sh10.9 billion that they are expected to have collected by the end of June.
This means that cumulatively, the counties had collected 80 percent of their targets in the first three quarters of the fiscal year and are just left with 20 percent (Sh2.1 billion) to collect in the remaining three months to the end of June.
Among the 12, best performers were Uasin Gishu County which collected Sh1.09 billion (92.5 percent of its annual OSR target), Samburu with a collection of Sh232.3 million (90.7 percent of its annual OSR target), Isiolo whose collection of Sh237.6 million was equivalent to 87.6 percent of its annual target and Kirinyaga which collected Sh472.8 million (86 percent of its annual target).
“Analysis of OSR as a proportion of the annual revenue target indicated that 12 counties achieved a performance of above 75 percent of the annual target,” the CoB noted.
But the 12 recorded a good performance despite overall OSR performance by the 47 counties remaining below target, with missed collections totalling Sh19.2 billion, as 15 counties collected below half of their annual targets.
“Conversely, counties with the lowest proportion of OSR against targets were Kericho at 30.8 percent, Nyandarua at 27.1 percent, Machakos at 26.3 percent, and Lamu at 20.7 percent of the annual target,” the CoB report notes.
“The COB advises the county governments that recorded performance below 50 percent of their annual target to control budget commitments to avoid accumulating pending bills in the coming financial year,” it adds.
