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{
"id": 1406061,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
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"id": 13199,
"legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
"slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
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"content": "county government has committed to match a shilling for a shilling, up to Kshs250 million for the establishment of the industrial parks. What that means is that, cumulatively, Kshs11.7 billion of this Kshs391 billion proposed equitable share to county governments, will go into the industrial parks. The implication is that this is actually double the amount of increment that we have given to counties. Secondly, the national Government has, through Parliament, pushed the housing levy, which is not discretionary to counties. So, as the employers, counties will have to pay 1.5 per cent as contribution to match the 1.5 per cent contribution from every member of staff in the counties. There is also the SHIF, which again, is not discretionary to counties. They have to contribute for each member of staff under this cover. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, that tells you that we are giving counties with the left hand, and with the right hand, taking away what we have given them and more. At the very least, the money that we allocate to counties in this coming financial year must be able to cover and reflect three main factors. It must cover for inflation; the time value for money, because the value of any currency, apart from the hard currencies, has a tendency of depreciating purely at the passage of time. The value of the shilling four years down the line cannot be said to be its value today. That inflation must be covered in this allocation. We must also look into the absolute growth in the budget. If we were collecting Kshs1.8 trillion and now we project to collect more than that, at 6.4 per cent, the allocation that goes to counties, calculated on the basis of the baseline for the last financial year, must reflect that growth in revenue. This is because the revenues that are collected nationally are collected from counties. It cannot be that the national Government benefits from growth in revenue in a manner that is completely disproportionate, compared to the benefit that goes to the counties. We must also base our allocation on the baseline, which is Kshs385 billion. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I urge my colleagues on this one. Today, I listened to the President addressing Members of Parliament. He was clear in his message that Members had gotten themselves good and modern offices, and they must recommit and rededicate themselves to serving their people. I have consistently listened to public pronouncements by the President and I have never heard him say - at least not in public - that a section of the membership of Parliament should serve him or his Government. I listen to him and follow his speeches in public places. He has always held the view that Member of Parliament (MPs) should serve the people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not know where we lose it. Maybe, when Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale gets a chance, he will tell us where the rain begins to beat us. This is because we get to a point where, instead of doing that which we are elected to do, or instead of doing what the President is urging us to do in public, we do things that run contrary to the expectations after the instructions of the President. The President has told the Members of the Senate on the Majority side, the side that forms the Government, to serve their people. The best service for any Senator is to protect and defend devolution. In the words of one of their own, Sen. Mungatana, ‘you The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1406062,
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"text_counter": 390,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13199,
"legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
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"content": "can never serve to protect and defend devolution, if you do not give counties the revenue to carry out their functions.’ Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am praying that this time round, the Senate will speak in one voice and determine that we are going to allocate Kshs415.9 billion to our counties. If the skies must fall, let the skies fall. We all know what happened in the last Division of Revenue Act (DORA) debate and right now, we are bound by that decision because it is a vote that was carried on the Floor. Those of us who wanted more money for the counties and those who wanted less money are all bound by the decision of the Senate; that we gave a raw deal to our people in the counties. We gave our counties less money than was recommended by the Commission on Revenue Authority (CRA). Our governors made petitions and lobbied a lot of us to push these allocations to at least Kshs390 billion that time, but we were unable to do it. This time around, let us remember that our biggest role is to defend and protect devolution. We have a duty of care to our counties to push for additional revenues. As I conclude, it is now 6.05 p.m. There are Senators in this House lining up to contribute to this Bill, to push forward the agenda of more funds and more revenue to our counties. Perhaps, our governors are watching because this is important to them. We are doing a good job so late in the day to push more money to counties, including Kakamega, Busia, Nandi, Marsabit and Elgeyo/Marakwet. Once we are done with this, we begin to oversight the expenditure of this money. We should continue being the darlings of our governors. It cannot be that we are useful to governors when we are pushing money to counties, and then we become enemies when we ask how the money is being spent. It is ridiculous. I conclude by saying that maybe I want to pick a cue from what the Senate Majority Leader said. Colleagues, I want to challenge us. This business of county governments deciding whatever system they are going to use to collect their revenue and they keep changing it year in, year out, the time has come that this Senate now must prescribe a revenue collection system that applies to all counties. This is so that we do not have a situation where some counties are collecting money using receipts and others are collecting money using systems that are developed, I do not know where. Let us have a uniform system of revenue collection for counties for purposes of proper accountability. With those many remarks, I support the report, but reject the proposal for Kshs391 billion from the National Assembly and stand for Kshs415.9 billion to counties. I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir."
},
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"id": 1406063,
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"text_counter": 391,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale."
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{
"id": 1406064,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406064/?format=api",
"text_counter": 392,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. In 2013, when Kenyans made decisions either to be governors or Senators, the majority of the victors at the gubernatorial and Senatorial level were former Members of Parliament (MPs). I was one such person. At that time, we all thought we were doing it because we wanted to be champions of devolution. Alas, 12 years down the line, it has now become very evident that the only The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1406065,
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"text_counter": 393,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"id": 170,
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"content": "place you can find a champion of devolution is in the Senate. However, when you go to the countryside, you look at some of the governors, majority of them do not wish to be champions of devolution. Instead, they want to be champions of affluence, self-aggrandizement, bling-bling and showbiz. That is why you go to a public function in Busia, and you see your governor arriving in a chopper. You wonder while we were in this House, did we pass a fund for governors to be drawing from to hire choppers to go to public functions? It is very sad. I appeal to Members of the National Assembly. Their role in the division of revenue should not just be limited to the increasing NG-CDF and money meant for road maintenance. Their role should also include justification on why they arrive at a particular figure. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have sat in the Committee on Finance and Budget for long hours. Sometimes, we would arrive at 7.30 a.m., rush to normal senatorial work and run late into the night. Sometimes, we would work over the weekends, so that we beat this deadline. We have had proposals from the National Treasury. It has said that Kshs391 billion - fine, they have tried to justify it. We cannot fault them, they have to hold their ground. The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has proposed Kshs398 billion, and has justified it. The CoG has also attempted to justify their request for Kshs439 billion. Amazingly, the National Assembly has not justified anything. They just said we agree with the National Treasury without caring to ask or listen to Senators about the needs of our county governments and the people who live in those counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I must ask Members of the National Assembly to remember, if they have forgotten, which they should never do for as long as they are still alive, that they come from counties. The constituencies they represent are made of people who are the residents of these counties. Any development accruing to these people is in their interest. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I firmly support that we move away from Kshs391.1 billion as proposed by the National Treasury and rubber-stamped by the National Assembly and adopt the well-considered, well-thought-out figure of Kshs415.9522 billion. Having said this, I now appeal to the National Treasury that; play it fair. It is the Executive where the National Treasury sits, that asked counties to participate in the issue of housing levy, the social health insurance fund, county aggregated industrial parks and in helping to pay the community health promoters. Therefore, when we ask for more money beyond Kshs391 billion to Kshs415.9522 billion, it is because we want to help the national government to push its national agenda on housing, universal health, aggregated industrial parks and primary health care. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this brings me to my third point. That is, where does the money that we are talking about come from? It comes from raising revenue. At this The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1406066,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406066/?format=api",
"text_counter": 394,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"speaker": {
"id": 170,
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"content": "moment, I would like to commend the national Government on the issue of raising revenue. If they had failed on this issue, counties would by now have collapsed. I appeal to Kenyans who are in court today, who are making it through legal fights in court for the KRA to perform, to take it easy to allow the KRA to employ 6,000 professionals that they wish to employ, so that we improve on revenue collection. The KRA does not collect money outside the provisions of the Finance Act. It is up to us to allow them to have enough staff. If we do not like the provisions in the Finance Act that they use to collect money, we can rectify. Why am I commending the national Government? In financial year 2013/2014 – I know Mr. Njenga can remember this with nostalgia – we were collecting Kshs0.8 trillion. However, last year, we collected a whopping Kshs2.4 trillion. We will collect more this year. That corresponds to tripling of that amount. Do they not deserve commendation? Are we not proud of the KRA? They are doing a good job. Fast forward, to collection of revenue by county governments, I would like to talk about what is famously called own source revenue. What is wrong with counties? I do not understand. I bemoan this. According to my Principal Research Officer, Mr. Samuel Muhati, who prepared for me this report, there are only three counties that are putting an effort in own source revenue, namely, the County of Narok, congratulations Gov. Ntutu. We also have the County of Kirinyaga, congratulations Gov. Anne Waiguru. The third one is, guess which county? It is Wajir County, despite the challenges there. Gov. Abdullahi found that the county was collecting Kshs46 million. However, last year, he was able to collect Kshs160 million. You know there are limited resources in Wajir. I am so proud of Gov. Abdullahi. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we can give some accolades to Gov. Anne Waiguru. She found the County of Kirinyaga collecting Kshs180 million, but now she has grown it to Kshs600 million. That young lady is working. That is the only good thing I can say about own source revenue by our counties. My question is: what went wrong with Nairobi City County? Given the contribution of Nairobi City County to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this country at 57 per cent, it means the GDP of Nairobi City County is bigger than the GDP of the Republic of Rwanda, Burundi, Gambia, Guinea and many African countries. With that kind of GDP, where does own source revenue disappear to? Again, according to a research by my Principal Research Officer, Mr. Samuel Muhati, he confirmed to me that it is the position of the CRA and the CoB. If Nairobi City County was to perform, they have the potential to declare a collection of Kshs89 billion per year. However, they do not do so. Today, we were in a presidential function where the Governor of Nairobi City County told us that he has no money and I was wondering where their own source revenue goes. We give him Kshs20 billion. Gov. Sakaja, in my other life, I am your maternal uncle. I urge you to make the youth proud. Collect and declare the own source revenue by Nairobi City County. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1406067,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406067/?format=api",
"text_counter": 395,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"id": 170,
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"content": "It is not just Nairobi; what is happening in Mombasa County? Where is the money? Mombasa County sits on one of the biggest ports in Africa. Where is the money for Nakuru, Kiambu, Machakos counties, and the good old Kakamega County? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Kakamega is not a small county. When you used to live in Kakamega County, you were a small boy, who did not know where you were living then. Kakamega County is not child’s play. It has Mumias Sugar Company, an economy of Kshs24 billion. West Kenya Sugar Company is close to Kshs14 billion. Butali Sugar Company controls Kshs10 billion. I have not stated returns from other areas like gold mining in Lurambi, Ikolomani and Shinyalu. Kakamega County should declare a minimum of Kshs2.5 billion as own source revenue. We do not understand what happens. I encourage governors, especially the one of Narok County, where Sen. Olekina has tabled a Motion on pending bills. They should understand that there is no magic and it is common sense. Dear governors, if you pay pending bills, it means those who delivered services reinvest in that county's economy. It is akin to a businessman who makes a profit in his shop, reploughing the money in the shop. The shop ends up growing faster. If the businessman does not replough the profit from the shop and takes it to do other things, the shop goes down. This is how our counties that have governors’ shops are being treated. I would like to end my contribution with two small points. Firstly, nobody has spoken about the issue of the equalisation fund in this Bill. This fund will get Kshs10.8 billion. I do not know what happened to the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) when I was away. They convinced this House that the end users of the equalisation fund should not be the 14 counties from the ASAL areas, which we had identified at the Committee on Finance and Budget. They spread the fund thin to 34 counties. Therefore, we have an additional 20 counties competing with counties that deserve this money and they have spread it thin, hence the benefit cannot be seen. How I wish that after this financial year, this House can agree with me, so that we become nationalists and allow these counties from the ASAL areas to enjoy this fund preferentially. What joy do you get when you see small boys from Wajir or Turkana County stopping you by the road, as we saw when we were there during the conference.I wondered why they were stopping me. I said, I will be stopping and each one of them asked for water. You give the small boy a bottle of water, his face lights up, he then hides the bottle behind him and brings another hand because he wants one more bottle. These were the things that this fund was supposed to address. I find Murang’a on the list of counties sharing the equalization fund. Why would people in Murang’a, where President Kenyatta took piped water many years ago, be competing with the people of Turkana, unless you want to change the nationality of Turkanas to go to South Sudan or wherever you want them to go? We have to be nationalists. This is the House of equalization. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I appeal to the KRA to rethink, so that nobody in Murang’a thinks I am against them. Even the good old Bungoma is on that list. In Bungoma, we enjoy nine months of rain, 12 months in a year. Why would we fight for The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1406068,
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"text_counter": 396,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "money meant for water to go to Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Baringo or Pokot counties? Finally, I conclude by sounding out governors. Governors, especially the Governor of Kakamega, complained very loudly through some Senators here that we had not given them enough money. It is now one year down the line; show us what you use that money for. In Kakamega, we allowed them to have a budget of Kshs17 billion, and up to now, salaries are still in arrears and the money has gone there. Why? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in Kakamega, the ongoing projects that were started by Gov. Oparanya, have all stalled. Why is that so and the money has gone there? Committees of the County Assembly of Kakamega cannot perform because the Governor is not funding them. Pending bills in Kakamega remain unpaid, and we have sent this money. Why? The money for Pension Fund, National Social Security Fund (NSSF), and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is not being remitted. If they had this budget of Kshs17 billion and they were not doing these things, why were they shouting that the money was not enough? They should have at least given us a report card saying that these things we have done and yet they have not been done. With those many remarks, I support this Bill with the main amendment that we amend it to Kshs415.9 billion. I thank you."
},
{
"id": 1406069,
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"text_counter": 397,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Proceed, Sen. Okiya Omtatah."
},
{
"id": 1406070,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406070/?format=api",
"text_counter": 398,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I support the Bill with the amendment that the amount should be raised to Kshs415.9 billion. What the National Assembly has done is unacceptable and must be resisted. However, we shall only succeed if we stand as a single House. I pray that the Government side does not betray us again this time. They should stand with us. The National Assembly has undermined devolution in many ways. I invite this House to look at Clause 2 of the Division of Revenue Bill. It states that- “In this Act unless the context otherwise requires, ‘revenue’ has the meaning assigned to it under Section 2 of the Commission on Revenue Allocation Act”. When you look at the Commission on Revenue Allocation Act, what it prescribes is not what the Constitution anticipates. Article 202 of the Constitution states- “That revenue raised nationally shall be shared equitably among the national and county governments”. When you go to that section of the Commission on Revenue Allocation Act, it describes revenue to mean taxes imposed by the national Government under Article 209 of the Constitution and any other revenue, including investment income that might be authorised by an Act of Parliament, but excludes revenues referred to. Those excluded revenues are supposed to be part of the revenues that constitute the whole, and upon this House, we must fight to make sure that we get those revenues back as part of the unit for computing the revenues that go to the county governments. Otherwise, these people have played us. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}
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}