Socio-Economic Status of Kitui County with COVID-19

Abstract

Kitui County total revenue has grown by an average of 12.43 per cent from Ksh 6.27 billion in 2013/14 to Ksh 11.72 billion in 2020/21. During 2019/20 the county received a total of Ksh. 9.71 billion representing 22 per cent decline compared to the amount received during 2018/19, following the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Monthly cash transfers from the National government have always had an increasing trend from January to June over the years. Conditional grants are also a source of revenue for financing county operations and has been growing over the years. The County receives conditional grants from the National Government and development partners mainly from World Bank and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and Sweden. The share of OSR to total revenue has been relatively stable between 2013/14 and 2020/21, averaging 3.76 per cent. In 2014/15 the county reported Ksh 405.9 million in pending bills. This increased to Ksh. 1,167.1 million in 2017/18 with development spending related pending bills accounting for 80.2 per cent of this. In 2019/20 bending bills slowed to Ksh. 936.2 million before shooting up to Ksh 1,089.7 million at the end of 2020/21, the second highest recorded since devolution. Development spending related to pending bills have been greater than those related to recurrent expenditure on average accounting for 61.0 per cent of the pending bills portfolio. To ensure continued recovery, the county must now move quickly to tackle the problem of pending bills, mobilize more finances from OSR to increase the available revenues for budgetary operations, seek for more funding in form of grants from development partners to cater for the critical development projects in the county and ensure that the ongoing projects are completed before launching new project and clear any pending bills and arrears owed to suppliers. In addition to this, the Kitui County to mobilize more finances from OSR to increase the available revenues for budgetary operations and seek for more funding in form of grants from development partners to cater for the critical development projects in the county.