Save for a full-page advert (click image) in the main dailies listing the amounts per council, there’s not been a single serious commentary or analysis regarding this money from our mainstream media houses. This being one of the most opaque and least understood public funds in Kenya, it’s important that we pause for a minute and ask ourselves a few pertinent questions regarding this money.
Are members of the public aware that these big sums of their own money have been given out to their ward Councillors?
Are members of the public aware that these funds are meant to initiate and complete various projects in their wards this year?
Are the taxpayers aware that their Councillors do not have ward committees (akin to the CDF committees) to oversee the use of these funds in the ward?
Are Kenyan voters aware that these funds have consistently been paid out to civic authorities every year since 1999?
Above all, can Kenyan voters confidently point out past LATF projects in their respective residential wards?
In attempting to answer these questions, I would like to begin by castigating the mainstream media in Kenya for failing in their duty to inform us regarding the LATF funds and their use over the years. In yet another classic example of this gross abdication, no journalistic enquiry worth talking about has been conducted by leading media houses to examine these funds, even after their disbursement this year.
The result is that few people are aware that public money is available for various development projects at the ward level, besides the much talked about CDF. Even fewer are aware that their elected Councilors have been entrusted with the authority to use this money as they deem fit within the wards. Incidentally, they are expected to do this in consultation with the ward residents.
Nairobi City Councillors receive the highest LATF amounts
This may come as a shock to many Nairobi residents, but it is true that from the LATF allocations in the 175 local authorities, Nairobi Councillors receive the highest amounts based on population density compared to other councils. From the recent disbursments, Nairobi City Council has already received a whooping Ksh. 597 Million for use at the wards level.
This implies that each of the 75 elected Nairobi Councillors is currently in charge of almost Ksh 8 Million meant to initiate various projects within their electoral wards. To appreciate the seriousness of this issue, it’s worth noting that this disbursement is just the first allocation this year by the local government ministry. Two other payouts will follow by October 2008.
During the government budget speech read on 14th June 2007, Finance Minister Amos Kimunya explained: “Budgetary allocation under LATF more than doubled from KShs.3.0 billion in 2002/03 to KShs.6.5 billion in 2006/07 and is projected to rise to Kshs.9.2 billion in 2007/08.”
Indeed, this year’s budget has allocated Ksh. 9.2 billion to local authorities. Nairobi City Council will receive the biggest chunk of the fund at Ksh1.7 billion. I invite you to do the maths and see how much each of the 75 elected Nairobi Councillors will receive from this by the end of the financial year.
However, the big question for the rest of us remains: Who is going to watch over these big sums of our money?
Of great concern to the Kenyan taxpayers is the fact that these funds are not publicly supervised nor are they publicly audited. A most feeble attempt at public audit is captured on the local government full-page adverts in these words: “Citizens should demand regular progress reports from their elected local councils on the use of the funds.”
According to the LATF act of 1998, the closest the funds come to being audited is when the officer administering the Fund (PS Local government) “prepares, signs and transmits to the Controller and Auditor-General, in respect of each financial year and within four months after the end thereof, a statement of accounts relating to the Fund specifying the income to the Fund and showing the expenditure incurred out of the Fund.”
To the best of my knowledge, I’m yet to see, read or hear a government public audit report on these funds since 1999.
The urgent need for Ward Committees
During the civic election campaigns last year in Kileleshwa, my most important and consistent pledge to the voters was the immediate establishment of a ward committee if I got elected. This proposed committee would comprise residents’ association officials and other critical stakeholders, to supervise the use of LATF funds meant for Kileleshwa. This ideal remains even more valid today. (Read my contract with Kileleshwa voters).
It’s obvious that without this sort of accountability on the money and going by what we’ve seen in the past, the money will easily find ‘better’ uses for our Councillors. Indeed, stories abound of people who were financially strapped becoming overnight millionaires during their first terms as Councillors.
There’s no magic or brilliance to it. As Kenyan voters, lets not regale ourselves with these stories in 2012. It’s our money after all that’s enriching a few.
The act needs to be revised by our MPs to enable the formation of ward committees and annual public audits. LATF is at par, if not more critical than CDF when it comes to uplifting the infrastructural and economic conditions of Kenyans at the grassroots.
Used well, these funds have the potential to catalyze some serious development projects in the wards. More so if targeted at informal small-scale business people, agricultural initiatives and the time-bomb that is the ever growing number of unemployed youth.
In concluding, I submit that due to an incredible omission in the local government act, the LATF funds remain a blank cheque given to our Councillors. Its high time taxpayers woke up from their ambivalence to start demanding accountability for their money.
As usual, your views and comments on this subject are most welcome.
Email me: dmuhindi@gmail.com
