The Senate on Thursday ordered The Controller Of Budget not to authorise any funds set aside for construction of houses for governors, their deputies and speakers in the 2018/19 budgets.

The Budget and Finance Committee further directed that county governments “suspend all expenditure on county infrastructural projects and put all the contracts signed on hold till further directions are given by the relevant authorities.”

The seat has noted with concern the variance in the costs of construction for the respective counties and wants to engage stakeholders to review the projects’ and have them rationalised and harmonised.

Counties have set aside billions for the construction of these residences and the figures for each county vary from between Sh100 million to Sh250 million.

Nairobi county has for instance allocated Sh130 million for the speaker’s residence, Uasin Gishu (Sh80 million) while Garissa has allocated Sh75 million.

Embu County has set aside Sh335 million for the construction of County Assembly Offices, Bungoma Sh400 million, Nyandarua (Sh442 million), Kilifi Sh500 million, Nairobi (Sh400 million) and Uasin Gishu has allocated (Sh850 million).

Nyeri County has proposed Sh 200 million for the construction of the governor’s residence, Kirinyaga county has set aside Sh100 million while Embu has allocated Sh75 million.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had in a circular issued to counties directed them to prioritize the construction of official residences in the 2018/18 financial year.

The senate has asked the SRC to revoke the circular within seven days.