GOVERNANCE
Speaker Kinengo Draws the Line as Budget Standoff Deepens: “Government Cannot Function Through Illegalities”
By Martin Masai
A major showdown between the Kitui County Assembly and Governor Julius Malombe’s administration has escalated into a full-blown constitutional standoff.
Speaker Kevin Kinengo has stated he will not allow a controversial supplementary budget to proceed until legal requirements are met.
The impasse mirrors a similar crisis unfolding in neighboring Machakos County, where county assemblies have increasingly found themselves battling executives accused of bypassing oversight mechanisms and attempting to force through financial decisions without adequate scrutiny.
Speaking forcefully on the floor of the Assembly, Kinengo accused the county executive of seeking to use the supplementary budget process to introduce sweeping changes running into tens of percentage points while avoiding the public participation, accountability and procedural safeguards required by law.
“The law is the law,” the Speaker declared, insisting that he would not commit the budget to the Budget Committee merely to create the appearance of compliance.
At the heart of the dispute is the extent of the proposed budget alterations.
According to Kinengo, county executives seeking approval through supplementary budgets are only allowed limited adjustments of up to one percent.
However, he claimed that the Kitui Executive had introduced changes affecting between 30 and 40 percent of some budget lines — alterations so substantial that they fundamentally changed the original budget framework approved by the Assembly.
One of the examples cited by the Speaker concerns an allocation of KSh7 million earmarked for construction of a perimeter wall at the Kitui showground. Kinengo questioned the legality of the allocation, arguing that the facility remains under the national government’s control and has not been formally transferred to the county government.
He further revealed that discussions with national government officials had indicated that the national administration still intends to complete the project itself.
The Speaker also took issue with what he described as the removal and redistribution of significant road development funds without public participation.
For Kinengo, the issue is no longer merely about numbers on a budget document.It is about whether county governments can alter development priorities, shift millions of shillings and redirect public resources without first returning to the people and the Assembly for proper scrutiny.
In a speech that repeatedly emphasized constitutionalism and institutional independence, Kinengo portrayed the dispute as a struggle between executive convenience and legislative oversight.
For four years, he argued, county assemblies have routinely been pressured to fast-track government business until the final voting stage, reducing legislators to rubber stamps rather than watchdogs.
Now, he says, that culture must end.”I am the Speaker. I will take the bullet for you.My responsibility is to guide the process,” he told members, making it clear that he would not be intimidated into facilitating what he considers an unlawful process.
The Speaker’s position directly challenges a narrative increasingly advanced by some county executives whenever assemblies reject budget proposals — that legislators are frustrating service delivery and sabotaging development.Kinengo rejected that argument.
Government operations, he maintained, cannot be sustained through procedural shortcuts and legal violations.If projects are delayed because legal requirements have not been met, responsibility lies not with the Assembly but with those attempting to circumvent the law.
The Speaker reminded members that returning a budget to the executive is not unprecedented.
He recalled a previous administration in which the Assembly rejected and returned a budget to the governor, forcing negotiations and amendments before eventual approval.
What is different this time, he suggested, is the level of political pressure being exerted against the Assembly.
Kinengo accused unnamed actors of attempting to mobilize public anger against MCAs, portray the Assembly as anti-development and blackmail legislators into abandoning their constitutional mandate.
He urged members to resist political calculations and instead focus on their duty to the people who elected them.
In one of the most dramatic moments of the address, Kinengo compared the current political environment to an aircraft heading toward disaster.The plane, he said, may be coming down, but those who remain faithful to the law, the Constitution and the public interest will receive “parachutes” and survive the crash.
“The plane is coming down. But those who stand with the law, the Bible and the people will be given parachutes by God. Some may be bringing the plane down, but I will not go down with them.” — Speaker Kelvin Kinengo
The metaphor underscored his belief that political expediency may offer temporary protection, but adherence to principle ultimately provides the only lasting safeguard.
Perhaps most significantly, the Speaker disclosed that efforts to resolve the dispute through dialogue had failed.
According to Kinengo, the Assembly adjourned for two weeks to create room for consultations with Governor Malombe’s administration.
He says he personally reached out to the governor but received no direct response.Instead, he learned of the executive’s position through public rallies and speeches delivered in various parts of the county.
The revelation suggests a growing breakdown in communication between the two arms of government at a time when cooperation is needed to unlock critical county spending.
The Kitui standoff now bears striking similarities to developments in Machakos, where disputes over budgets, accountability mechanisms and oversight powers have equally brought county business to a near standstill.
In both counties, assemblies are increasingly arguing that executives are attempting to cut corners in financial management while portraying oversight as obstruction.
The executives, meanwhile, maintain that delayed approvals threaten service delivery and development projects.But Kinengo’s speech leaves little doubt where he stands.
He insists that county assemblies are not administrative departments of governors’ offices.
They are independent constitutional institutions mandated to scrutinize spending, protect public resources and ensure that government actions remain within the law.
The message from Kitui’s Speaker was blunt and unmistakable: “The supplementary budget will not move forward simply because the executive wants it to. Until legal requirements are satisfied, public participation is conducted and accountability questions answered, the Assembly will hold its ground.”
In a political season increasingly defined by struggles over power and control, Kitui’s budget battle is rapidly becoming a larger test of whether county assemblies can still exercise meaningful oversight — or whether executive pressure can ultimately force them into submission.
This version positions the Kitui dispute as part of the broader accountability war now unfolding across counties in Kenya, while highlighting Kinengo’s central argument: that supplementary budgets cannot be used as a shortcut around public participation, legislative scrutiny, and financial accountability.
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