In August 2022, new leaders were ordained into office, each leader taking an oath to rule the people by the rule of law.
However, majority of the county bosses were met by surprises, when they stepped into office, by the huge pending bills left by their predecessors.
Many counties have huge debts which were loaned to the previous administration from the national government.As of September 30, 2023, counties reported outstanding pending bills which amounted to sh 168.62 billion. Nairobi county was leading with outstanding debts of sh 100.36 billion, followed by Wajir at sh 5.59billion, other counties with notable huge debts are Kiambu with sh 4.98billion, Machakos sh 2.88billion and Muranga with sh 2.75 billion.
The Kisii county government will not pay pending bills in excess of ksh 1.2billion owed to contractors as they have been classified as illegal.
In an interview, the Kisii governor Simba Arati,made the revelations that he cannot pay the whole debt which was left by his predecessor, but will just pay a small amount of it.
” The pending bills for the financial year ending June 30, 2022 were received on assumption of office in September 2022, there was lack of clarity or explanation as to their eligibility in the absence of the existing ineligible pending bills committee,” said Arati.
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| Kisii governor, Simba Arati at a previous event Photo Courtesy | Nation Media Group |
The current county bosses are faced with the challenge, as they cannot borrow more loans due to the high pending bills. They are also expected to pay up the loans which they cannot establish whether the money was spent wisely, or otherwise.
The National government ,in collaboration with the Ethics and Anti Crimes Commission (EACC),should take a thorough audit to investigate the huge debts and if corruption is cited ,the corrupt individuals should be apprehended and be the ones to be responsible of the respective county debts.
This debts are forcing the newly sworn in governors to have a hard task of transforming their counties, for the better, as they aim at fulfilling their campaign pledges as well as meeting the expectations of their counties.
If these debts are not settled earlier they will continue accumulating and some counties will have to lag behind in matters development since there will be no money in the county coffers for development due to the pending bills.
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