KENYA, June 29–At a high-profile State House ceremony marking the 11th Presidential Assent of the year, President William Ruto officially signed the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2026, into law. This pivotal statutory milestone establishes a structured fiscal architecture for the equitable distribution of resources among Kenya’s 47 devolved units, providing a stabilized operational framework designed to optimize the management of decentralized administrative functions nationwide.
The newly enacted legislation serves to fully operationalize the Division of Revenue Act, 2026, releasing a substantial financial tranche of Ksh.428 billion to local governments by authorizing the horizontal disbursement of the counties’ shared portion of nationally generated revenue. This adjusted funding envelope reflects an incremental growth of Ksh.13 billion relative to the Ksh.415 billion disbursed during the preceding 2025/2026 Financial Year.
President Ruto emphasized that the restructured mathematical model will significantly solidify the core pillars of devolution, guaranteeing a resilient fiscal baseline while systematically adjusting allocations based on objective metrics such as population density, land mass, poverty indexes, and equal base shares.
Furthermore, the legal text explicitly demarcates the dual financial responsibilities binding the national government and local administrations concerning the management of the transferred capital.
Under these new mandates, County Executives are required to comprehensively determine the operational costs of all functions absorbed from the national government. Subsequently, local County Assemblies must appropriate commensurate funding for these responsibilities, with the strict caveat that such allocations must not fall below the budgetary benchmarks set in the previous fiscal cycle.
Complementing these protocols, the law institutes heightened accountability oversight by compelling any national government body managing a transferred function to deliver comprehensive quarterly implementation reports directly to the Senate and the corresponding County Assemblies.
To ensure strict fiscal tracking, each devolved unit has been assigned its precise financial quota, which Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi is statutory obligated to format and publicize via a formal schedule tracking all conditional disbursements drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
This timely legislative intervention also introduces strict recurrent expenditure caps, aiming to balance day-to-day administrative overheads with much-needed grassroots development investments.
A deeper analysis of the allocation components reveals that,Ksh.387.43 billion will be injected directly through the Baseline Allocation framework to sustain the ongoing administrative workflows and public programs of the county governments.
Ksh.4.46 billion has been sequestered under the Affirmative Action Allocation banner to intentionally stimulate economic recovery in 12 historically underserved counties.
Ksh.36.1 billion will be distributed via a weighted formula that addresses structural variables like economic distance and local poverty disparities.
The executive arm remains highly optimistic that these enhanced revenue flows will effectively fast-track critical developmental programs, systematically uplifting local livelihoods, creating sustainable jobs, and broadening public access to essential amenities.
According to the official schedules, the regional centers commanding the largest shares under the updated distribution framework include:
County Allocated Share;Nairobi Ksh.22.1, Billion,Nakuru Ksh.14.9 Billion, Turkana Ksh.14.3 Billion,Kakamega Ksh.14.1 Billion, Kiambu Ksh.13.5 Billion.
