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{
"id": 1550602,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550602/?format=api",
"text_counter": 533,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I stand to support the Revenue Division Bill 2025. I wish to commend the Budget and Appropriations Committee for a good job. I also commend and congratulate Hon. Samuel Atandi for assuming this position. I call upon him to exercise fairness in his work so that all Kenyans can benefit from his leadership of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Congratulations! I also want to congratulate Hon. Pukose for taking the position of Vice-Chair of that prestigious Committee. May they continue to discharge their duties with fairness, without favour, and steer the wheels of this very important Committee. Article 218(2) of the Constitution and Section 195 of the Public Finance Management Act, Cap 412A, indicate that the legislative proposal of the Division of Revenue should be accompanied by a memorandum that explains the following: the first thing that must be done is: that the Bill takes into account the criteria listed in Article 203 (1) of the Constitution, the extent of the deviation from the Commission on Revenue Allocations (CRA) recommendations, the extent, if any, of deviation from the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council and any assumptions and formula used in arriving at this. It is very important to ensure that these constitutional requirements are met so we do not conflict with the Senate. This Bill will go to the Senate, and they will try to winnow it according to the law. How did we deviate from the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council? How did we either The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1550603,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550603/?format=api",
"text_counter": 534,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "align or deviate? They will also check whether the formula given by CRA was followed. These are important things. To avoid conflict with the Senate, I just hope and wish that this Committee looks at this Bill in those aspects so that we do not get into conflict. The criteria for determining the Equitable Share to each level of Government is exclusively provided for in Article 203. That is where it is anchored in the Constitution. The Equitable Share to county government is informed by the provisions of Article 203(2), where it is specified that for every financial year, the equitable share of the revenue raised nationally that is allocated to county governments shall be not less than 15 per cent most recent audited accounts of revenue. This speaks to what Hon. Atandi talked about. Which audited accounts are we using? I call upon the committees that audit accounts to ensure that we fast-track them so that we use the most recent audited accounts. This will enable us to have real time value for money. If the accounts are still behind, it means we are allocating the 2025 Budget on approved accounts of the Financial Year 2020/2021. We are five years behind. The watchdog committees that audit accounts must fast-track their work so that we are at par. We are dealing with a budget that is almost Ksh3 trillion. However, we are allocating counties' money based on a two-point or one-point-something trillion-dollar Budget. This is not fair for the development of this country and the national Government. The most important one is the Equalisation Fund. If we must achieve what the Division of Revenue Bill wants for this country, then the latest accounts must be used, not those for the Financial Year 2020/2021. The Chairpersons of audit or watchdog committees have a duty of care for this nation to ensure we use the most recent audited account. The Division of Revenue Bill 2025 was published on 12th March 2025 and read for the first time in the House on 14th March 2025. It was subsequently committed to the Budget and Appropriations Committee. We have their Report. In analysis, the projected total shareable revenue for the Financial Year 2025/2026 is Ksh2.8 trillion. That is where we are. Ordinary revenue has been depicting inconsistent growth over the year. Its performance surpassed targets in the financial year by around 8 per cent and 21.9 per cent. In successive years, revenues fell short of targets by high margins, going beyond Ksh100 billion. Therefore, this Division of Revenue Bill requires everybody to work hard. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) must work hard for us to realise the things that we want. The Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning must work hard to ensure payment of expenditures and disbursement of funds. Today, one of the most important things that will come in the Budget because the Division of Revenue has sailed through is the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF). Today, it is three months to the end of the financial year, but we still do not have money. Somebody is probably not looking at the figures and working hard enough to ensure we get the available funds. Tomorrow, we will probably answer the question that Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu asked here yesterday. It will be disheartening to realise that we are still at Ksh14 billion in NG-CDF against a target that we must meet, yet we are coming to the end of the financial year."
},
{
"id": 1550604,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550604/?format=api",
"text_counter": 535,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "As I support this Bill, I ask everybody to do his bit so that the Division of Revenue Bill makes sense at the end of the day. We can look at all these figures and do the hard work that Hon. Atandi and his team are doing. However, at the end of the day, we cannot realise even half of what has been put in the Division of Revenue Bill."
},
{
"id": 1550605,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550605/?format=api",
"text_counter": 536,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, the Bill proposes to allocate Ksh2.4 trillion to the national Government, Ksh405.1 billion to the county governments and Ksh10.6 billion to the Equalisation Fund, which is already short of a lot of money because it is in arrears. We have said that they should be put in the Budget so that we can compensate for the loss. One of the things that we must discuss is whether the Equalisation Fund has an impact on the ground. Some people who sit in the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) mutilated the formula The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1550606,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550606/?format=api",
"text_counter": 537,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "that the Constitution provided. My constituency, which has a lot of marginalised areas, gets around Ksh8 million. What can you do with that amount to bring equalisation? Some areas were not even considered for many years during the constitution-making process, but they have been put in now. You are told that an area, for example, in Kiambu, which received a lot of resources then, now becomes part of the Equalisation Fund. These are areas that have benefited from other resources. There is a reason the Equalisation Fund was put in the Constitution. There was a big argument that we need to fast-track these areas to be like others. Therefore, we need to equalise these areas. However, what the people at the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) did played into the politics of the Jubilee government then. They wanted a share so that this could easily pass here in the House. We agreed to do that, but it has made the Equalisation Fund not to have sense. It does not make sense completely. For example, we have a whole area in Kilifi County, Ganze; even if you look at the statistics over many years, the poverty index is among the highest. Yet, they will get, for example, Ksh20 million, and other areas that have benefited from colossal allocations will get even more just because of politics."
},
{
"id": 1550607,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550607/?format=api",
"text_counter": 538,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "We need to divorce politics from issues of development and equalisation in this country. That is why I still insist on the arrears owed for those many years because this is a Fund. The Fund is in such a way that all the money that is collected must be put in an account. It does not go back. It must be put in the Equalisation Fund so that areas that have been denied resources because of the prolonged long cases in Court and the issues we have had in this House can be fast-tracked."
},
{
"id": 1550608,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550608/?format=api",
"text_counter": 539,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "It is very sad to have a whole location with only one school. Children walk ten kilometres. Let me give a graphic example of this. If we look at areas that were marginalised in this country, children still walk ten kilometres to find a school. Kids that do national exams are the oldest in age. A kid in Class Eight or Grade Eight there is 20 years old because he could not access school. There was no kindergarten, there was no Early Childhood Development (ECD), and there was nothing. They could not walk. He started going to school when he was 12 years old because that was the only time he could walk the ten kilometres to access a school. Yet we still want to hold the Equalisation Fund, and it looks like a political tool. That, we must divorce."
},
{
"id": 1550609,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550609/?format=api",
"text_counter": 540,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "There are areas in this country that are in dire need. There are areas in this country where people walk for ten kilometres in search of water. A woman carries a barrel of water on her head, yet it is not even drinkable; it is still dirty water collected from somewhere. Yet we are still saying here that we want to hold the Equalisation Fund and do the kind of things that we want to do with it."
},
{
"id": 1550610,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550610/?format=api",
"text_counter": 541,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I want to tell the Committee on Implementation of this House that they must follow everything passed here. They have an obligation to follow up on the issues. This is a law that we passed in this House. The Committee on Implementation needs to pick this up. Have we properly disbursed the Equalisation Fund to those areas as an important aspect of the Committee on Implementation? However, the Committee on Implementation looks at this as small. They want to follow the big billions set aside in the Division of Revenue Bill."
},
{
"id": 1550611,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550611/?format=api",
"text_counter": 542,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "One important thing I must speak to is that we send a lot of money to counties. But the new phenomenon of pending bills keeps on growing. It is new because it was not there around eight years ago. But now it has become a new concept that has become acceptable such that we are saying, okay, as we are budgeting, we must budget for pending bills. This is something that was not there, but it is a result of the misbehaviour of certain people. We have brought a new concept in budgeting in this country called pending bills, and it will continue to be there. But what do pending bills do to the economy? Young entrepreneurs are being killed. They have mental diseases now. If you see a country running on pending bills, you have a country running on the wrong footing. It means you are actually eating and spending what you cannot afford. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}
]
}