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{
"id": 1565872,
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"content": "I am praying for a day when the top-skilled agricultural officers will be employed at the ward levels, where their expertise is needed to advise farmers. I am praying that the best skills can reach our people at the grassroots level because that is what devolution was meant to achieve. Devolution was not intended to merely transfer services from the national Government to the county level and stop there. Rather, it was designed to ensure that services and resources flow from the national Government to county headquarters, then further to the sub-counties, and ultimately, down to the ward levels. Our people do not receive direct services at the national level. At the national level, the focus is primarily on policy coordination and standard-setting. However, implementation takes place at the ward level, where services directly reach the people. Two weeks ago, the Standing Committee on Land, Environment and Natural Resources visited Changara Dam in Busia County, where a proposed dam was funded by the World Bank. It is a pity that what we saw was a picture that looked close to a dam, something that is not useful to the people of Changara. I encourage Sen. Omtatah to push that agenda, so that the people of Changara receive services equivalent to the funds allocated to them. There must be value for money. Unfortunately, sometimes this does not happen because there may not be sufficient skilled personnel at the lower levels to supervise some of these projects. I, therefore, support this project based on the fact that counties need adequate funding to perform these functions as outlined in the Constitution. These functions are not limited to roads, health, water and environment---"
},
{
"id": 1565873,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Beatrice, your time is up. Thank you for your contribution. Sen. Okoiti Omtatah, proceed."
},
{
"id": 1565874,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1565874/?format=api",
"text_counter": 289,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
"speaker_title": "",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thank you for the opportunity to address this august House. I support the Bill on the increased allocation of Kshs645 billion. I will also pick up from where the Senator has just left off on the issue of the water pan in Changara, which was fully funded by the World Bank, yet nothing happened. I took action. I brought the people together, and we managed to get the Senate Committee, of which Sen, Beatrice is a Member, to visit the site. They saw the situation first hand. If they had just crossed the boundary into Bungoma, they would have seen a similarly funded system that is functioning. In Busia, it never worked, so we hope to get to the root of the issue. Over and above that, the World Bank sent about Kshs200 million to Busia in the past two budgets. I have done a follow-up. In fact, the group I assigned to do some auditing just finished and gave me a report yesterday. None of them is functional, but all the money has been depleted. The money is not in the account. In short, I am just saying that Busia is an economic crime scene that needs serious attention from the Senate. It is a total crime scene. Now, going back to the Motion on the Floor on the question of division of revenue, I support the figure of Kshs465,001,459,673 that has been recommended. However, that is as far as I support, because it is an improvement on the last allocation. I"
},
{
"id": 1565875,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1565875/?format=api",
"text_counter": 290,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "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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{
"id": 1565876,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "May 21, 2025 SENATE DEBATES 44"
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{
"id": 1565877,
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"content": "want to go back to the fundamentals of revenue division. There are two things that I would invite the Senate to look at in the law. Of course, we agree that Article 203 of the Constitution is very clear. If you look at sub-article (1), after addressing that when sharing this money, we shall take into account national interests and provide for public debt, which is another issue. That if public debt is top on the list of things, we must be very careful and pay full attention to public debt. On Article 203 (c), it states that we take care of the needs of the county and national Government. However, if you look at Article 203(d) (e) and (f), they all address devolution. In fact, the word in (d) is that they need to ensure that county governments are able to perform the functions allocated to them. That is the kind of funding we need to give them. There is also the requirement that we have to develop fiscal capacity and efficiency. We have looked at developmental and other needs of the counties. When you go further down Article 203(i), we must work for the economic optimisation of each county and to provide incentives for each county to optimise its capacity to raise revenue. Now, own-source revenue is an area that is again heavily abused in counties. When you look at it, in my own county of Busia, reports have even been made, but no action is taken. You will find that they talked of operationalising or computerising revenue collection. However, when you look at it, it is just some fraud scheme that allows them to collect revenue that does not get reflected and go into the County Revenue Funds (CRF). I want to look at Article 203(2), which states that- “For every financial year, the equitable share of the revenue raised nationally that is allocated to county governments shall not be less than 15 per cent of all revenue collected by the national Government.” Now that is a floor that has been set, but the revenue must ensure the upper things. The 15 per cent is just a floor that has been set. It is not a requirement that 15 per cent goes to counties. The requirement is that not less than 15 percent, but whatever goes to counties must achieve what is declared up there. When you go to (3), I have a strong feeling that this clause has been totally misinterpreted. If you look at the approved revenues, it is said under the recommendations, recommendation (b), the Schedule to the Bill be amended to reflect the following- “(b) (ii) the most recent account of revenue as approved by the National Assembly, which is Kshs1,920,434,085,078 for the Financial Year 2021/2022.” What we know is that the Auditor-General has submitted reports for the Financial Year 2023/2024. We are now in the Financial Year 2024/2025. The audit reports were submitted and these figures should be based on the audit report of 2022/2023 Financial Year, not 2023/2024 Financial Year, for the following reasons- Article 203(3) of the Constitution says that the amount referred to in clause (2), that is, 15 per cent, shall be calculated on the basis of the most recent audited accounts of revenue received, as approved by the National Assembly."
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{
"id": 1565878,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "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": 1565879,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "May 21, 2025 SENATE DEBATES 45"
},
{
"id": 1565880,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "We should ask ourselves in that sentence, what is approved by the National Assembly? Is it the audit report or the revenues that are approved by the National Assembly? If you go to Article 229(7) and (8), where the report is considered, sub-article (7) says, audit reports shall be submitted to Parliament or the relevant County Assembly. Sub-article (8) says, within three months after receiving an audit report, Parliament or County Assembly shall debate and consider the report and take appropriate action. There is no provision in that Article where the National Assembly or this House or County Assemblies approve audit reports. Audit reports are complete and final. If you want to challenge them, you can only challenge them in court. An Auditor-General is an independent office and their reports cannot be approved by this House. The interpretation of Article 203(3) means that the National Assembly approving audit reports is erroneous. This has denied county governments a lot of revenue, because we are now using a revenue of Kshs1 trillion when the last budget was about Kshs3 trillion. We should be talking of 15 per cent of Kshs3 trillion, not of Kshs1 trillion. Article 203(3), should be understood that the approval by the National Assembly refers to the revenue, not the audit. Thus, for the revenues that are approved by the National Assembly, revenues are introduced in Article 221, because in Article 220, we are told that budgets of national Government and county governments shall disclose revenue estimates of revenue and estimates of expenditure for those governments. Those are then considered under Article 221, and that is why they are approved. Basically, what Article 203 is telling us is that in an audit of the annual budget, we should implement the budget as has been audited. Since, once the revenues are approved, they are put into the Appropriation Act as the budget and passed by the House. There is nowhere else where the National Assembly considers revenues. Consequently, to say that the National Assembly approves the Report of the Auditor-General is erroneous. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you go to Article 229, you find that the National Assembly, the Senate and the County Assembly is given three months, within which not to approve, but to debate, consider and take appropriate action on an audit report. Fundamentally, we are told that we look at the report and within three months, make sure that there is accountability and those who have been adversely mentioned are to be held accountable. We urge departments of the national Government to improve on their accounting systems. It does not in any way tell us that we should be approving reports of the Auditor- General. Even if we were to argue that the National Assembly is supposed to approve reports of the Auditor-General before we use them as a basis for calculating the 15 per cent that should go to the county governments, in Article 229, there is a clear timeline of three months. The Auditor-General is given six months from 1st of July to audit books of the Government and present the report to us by 31st of December. After that, we have three months as Parliament to consider the report and take action on it. Anything outside three months that are given in the Constitution is null and void. The National Assembly cannot claim that it has not looked at the reports. That is sleeping on its job. That was for"
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"text_counter": 296,
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"speaker_name": "",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "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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