Devolved Priorities & Avoidable Tragedies

[OtishOtish]

Yesterday, gadgets and living large before clean water:

"MIGORI: The county will use Sh8.44 million to buy iPads for members of the county assembly and Sh106.3 million to pay their allowances, after the assembly passed the supplementary budget last week.
...
This comes barely a week after a report by the Commission for Revenue Allocation listed Migori among the counties that had passed the budget ceiling by increasing the wage bill and reducing money for development."

Today, the entirely-preventable:

"Six people have died and at least 80 others are in critical condition after an outbreak of cholera in Migori County.
.....
While the disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standards of hygiene, it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed".

www.nation.co.ke/counties/Migori-cholera-Health-Okoth-Obado-Donald-Jaleny/-/1107872/2619594/-/137dkqz/-/index.html

[jakaswanga]

Otishotish, the WB report may have been dismissed as nonsense, still it is being acted on. Rotich has loans applied to, from the body (World Bank)and so the nonsense forces the two Ruttos to photo op!

www.nation.co.ke/news/Commission-for-Revenue-Allocation-Counties-Workers-Wage-Bill/-/1056/2621036/-/mq6f6f/-/index.html

Thousands of workers in the 47 counties are set to lose their jobs as county governments act to contain their huge wage bills.

This follows an agreement between governors, the national government and the Commission for Revenue Allocation to change the public finance management regulations to ensure that no more than 35 per cent of funds allocated to county governments is spent on salaries.

Deputy President William Ruto with Council of Governors chairman Isaac Ruto (left) at the DP’s Karen office in Nairobi on February 11, 2015. The Deputy President and the governors had attended an Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council meeting at which they agreed on a raft of measures to reduce the counties’ huge wage bills

[OtishOtish]

Jakaswanga:

Yes, I heard of some major "donors" and the WB telling folks to stop fwaking with their money. I expected that the response from Ruto-A/Ruto-B to be that in that case, they would just have to turn East and ride their new, shiny SGR ... and His Excellency to say "here's a million dollars cash-money, pap!". But ...

I also noted Mr. Rotich's re-assuring words that certain recent loan guarantees does not mean that the country is borrowing more ... just an emergency buffer, he said. To be used only if it comes to the worst, which, folks were told is very unlikely. Great. A pity he didn't mention the fine print, according to which the lender insists that things are to be run in a certain ship-shape way if that "guarantee" is to be counted on.

Anyways ... eating needs to be done real quick, before the supply is reduced.