Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 553166,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553166/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Muthama",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 96,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Nduya Muthama",
        "slug": "johnson-muthama"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, I rise to support this Motion of Adjournment. I concur with the Chairperson, Sen. Billow, that the Senate has done a tremendous job more so, when I remember the 2013/2014 Financial Year when we had a lot of difficulties in this House on how to increase funds to the counties. In the 2014/2015 Financial Year, we also had a lot of difficulties where proposals were made on the Floor of the House. The Committee itself could not manage to move an inch towards increasing the funds. However, I am so happy that for the first time, in this Financial Year 2015/2016, the Chairman, together with the Mediation Committee that we appointed, has succeeded to negotiate and come out with something. Although they did not get the Kshs 7.7 billion that we wanted, we got close to what we wanted. This is a very clear demonstration that we are moving out of what Sen. G.G Kariuki termed as “political parties’ politics” and also the regional alignments of our country. I want to remind those who doubt the ability of this House’ work to refer to Article 96(3) of the Constitution which says:- “The Senate determines the allocation of the national revenue among counties, as provided in Article 217, and exercises oversight over national revenue allocated to the county governments.” The words are not “the Senate will” or “the Senate shall”, but it is involved in determining. It is therefore our responsibility to make sure that it is done and the funds are given to the counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, as we adjourn to go on recess, we are going out there to face a lot of challenges that will be posed to us by the people who sent us here. The one challenge that all of us will face is the issue of insecurity in the country. When you go to church, mosque or any other gathering, wananchi raise the issue of insecurity. When you address them, you say: “I want to ask the Government”. We have lived with those words since 1963 to date. Fifty years down the line, we are still issuing such statements to the people who elected us. The Common mwananchi does not know the difference between a Senator and the President when it comes to issues of insecurity. They do not know what the difference between the Executive and Parliament is. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, time has come for the leaders in this country to go by what was said by Sen. G.G Kariuki; that it is about Kenya, our children and grand children. We need to face the challenges of this country with the truth. If you look at the opinion polls that came out, which we read in the newspapers today, one of the issues that is bringing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s popularity down is the failure to cope with criticism. Criticism must be accepted. For now, we do not want to be seen circumventing criticism, as politicians, Senators and leaders. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}