Kitui County is facing a potential budgetary crisis after the county assembly was left without a functioning Budget and Appropriations Committee, effectively halting the review and approval of the 2025/26 budget estimates. Speaker Kevin Katisya said the paralysis stems from a court order obtained by a group of MCAs opposed to the reconstitution of assembly committees, thereby stalling all legislative operations, including the passage of the 2024/25 Supplementary Budget II.
Addressing the press in Kitui town, Katisya warned that the deadlock could derail development efforts, especially with KSh332 million in donor funds awaiting allocation. The speaker noted that all committees constituted in 2022 had reached the end of their three-year lifespan, but efforts to form new ones were frustrated in court. As a stopgap, Katisya is considering forming ad-hoc committees to enable the assembly to handle critical business. He dismissed reports of discord between him and Governor Julius Malombe, attributing such claims to politically motivated cartels, and reaffirmed the assembly’s oversight mandate over county projects.
