The Jubilee Administration is currently toying with a deal that may force Kenyans to pay as much as Sh12 billion in an attempt to derail the referendum process.
The money will be used to meet the cost of offices and vehicles for thousands of MCAs in an effort to bribe them into shooting down the referendum bill in their respective assemblies.
In the deal, the government offers to fund the construction of offices for all the 2,100 ward representatives.
The government will also pay the salaries of their staff, and extend car grants of up to Sh2 million to each of the ward representatives. The cost of fuelling and maintaining the vehicles will also be met by taxpayers.
In return, the government expects MCAs to reject the draft Bills set to be tabled in the county assemblies by both Cord and the Council of Governors.
The chairman of the MCAs forum, Dr Abdi Nuh, however, downplayed the deal, saying that ward representatives had only demanded car grants of Sh2 million. He denied that they were also demanding offices in their wards.
Deputy President William Ruto first hinted at the secret deal when he announced last week that the government would provide the county representatives with offices to allegedly enable them discharge their mandate effectively.
By promising car grants, the government appears to be exploiting the MCAs rejection of car loans extended to them by their respective county governments on grounds that they cannot repay the loans on their salaries.
www.doitadigital.com