President William Ruto has signed two landmark Senate bills into law during an official ceremony at the State Lodge in Eldoret. The newly enacted statutes—the County Governments Additional Allocation Act of 2026 and the County Assemblies Service (Amendment) Act—fundamentally reshape fiscal transfers to Kenya's 47 counties and establish stringent administrative safeguards for municipal assembly personnel across the country.
County Funding and Payment Schedules
The passage of the County Governments Additional Allocation Act unlocks a total financial transfer of Sh425.5 million above previous budgetary baselines. This expanded framework categorizes disbursements into unconditional equitable shares, conditional state grants earmarked for specific national priority projects, and externally funded development loans. To address historical delays in fund disbursements that have frequently paralyzed county-level services, the legislation mandates that the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury publish a binding quarterly payment schedule within thirteen days following the end of each financial quarter.
Safeguards for County Assembly Staff
Alongside the financial allocation updates, the County Assemblies Service (Amendment) Act introduces institutional reforms to stabilize county legislature operations. The law establishes standardized statutory procedures for disciplining or removing members of County Assembly Service Boards and clarifies the legal thresholds required to suspend or dismiss assembly clerks. By codifying procedural fairness into administrative actions, the law aims to protect assembly staff and seconded public servants from arbitrary political interference and unlawful dismissals.
County Governance and Development Spending
Devolution advocates and county governors have welcomed the legislative milestone, noting that predictable funding timelines will allow devolved units to execute development budgets efficiently. During the signing, President Ruto emphasized that strengthening county governance structures remains central to the national administration’s bottom-up economic transformation agenda. The signing of these bills provides immediate legal clarity for county treasury operations as local governments align their development spending with newly enacted statutory guidelines.