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{
"id": 1570392,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570392/?format=api",
"text_counter": 283,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"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."
},
{
"id": 1570393,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570393/?format=api",
"text_counter": 284,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "they need. There was a major mistake that we did in the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution. We created so many counties and, therefore, duplicated very many roles. Indeed, if we would spin the wheel of time, we could have created like 12 or 15 counties, so that we do not have to duplicate so many roles, and create units that mostly are defined along ethnical lines. Having said that, I have looked at the formula and the report as proposed by the Committee on Finance and Budget, and indeed, they have done a good job. However, there is one question that has been lingering in my mind, and that is, why do we not get a variable that will ensure that we give incentives to those counties that practice financial prudence? This will encourage innovations, encourage a lot of startups, and most importantly, get a variable that will encourage counties to ensure that the young generation gets involved in creation of cottage industries. In any case, we are where we are, and we must face it as it is. Indeed, I support the Committee on Finance and Budget Report with various amendments. One, it is unfortunate, and I say this as a patriotic Kenyan. We have continued to use the poverty index for the last 10 years of devolution. I wish we could have paused to ask ourselves what the effect of this equalization or this affirmative percentage that we have allocated to counties has been that we think are disadvantaged. I think by using modern tracking formulas, we could have tried to track down this 14 per cent that was there previously. Now, it is 12 per cent. What impact has it had on counties? Having visited many marginalized counties and being involved in the construction industry, I realize that 80 per cent of the landmass of Kenya does not contribute in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this country. This is a very unfortunate. The problem is not that we only devolved the units and the functions, but most of the crucial functions were left in the central government. When I was the Chairperson of the Committee on Energy, we paid a visit to Wajir and Mandera counties. We were quite dismayed by the fact that they run their power generation using diesel generators. The distance that the trucks have to travel to deliver the heavy oil to land the diesel makes it almost unaffordable for anybody to use that as a means of production. That is why we have to rethink the way we distribute our resources, the way we connect our people to the main grid and the strategic plan that we must embrace, as a country, to ensure that even the 80 per cent of the landmass of this country contributes to the GDP and hence, leading to increased revenue collection. Having said that, let me also quickly note that we need to look at innovative ways of tracking whatever we disburse to the counties. More so, we have to leverage modern technology, that is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, with the auditing functions. Moreso, we know that most county governments and especially those who get heavy amounts--- I am talking about counties like Nairobi, Kiambu and Turkana that have equally very huge pending bills. This would be my prayer to my colleagues, to the sitting governors and to those who are interested in becoming governors.We must be alive to the fact that most of the counties give their contracts and service provision from small scale traders."
},
{
"id": 1570394,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570394/?format=api",
"text_counter": 285,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"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."
},
{
"id": 1570395,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570395/?format=api",
"text_counter": 286,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "When they hold onto their money in form of pending bills for two or three years, they end up crippling these business people. We know that voiding has been a common practice among many county governments. Where they lay the requisite and they list the requisition from the National Treasury, but once the money hits the account, they do not pay the intended beneficiary, but end up paying the beneficiaries they want. The reason being all the successors of governors who vacate office and leave huge pending bills, do not honor those pending bills. As Senators, as we fight for county governments to get more allocation, we must also be quite firm that as is in the law, the first charge should and must be the pending bills. I am a proud resident and Senator of Nyeri County that we have minimal pending bills. It is very disheartening when you read about counties like Nairobi that owes suppliers billions of shillings. It is quite unfortunate that most of the counties that keep on changing governors, like Kiambu, have equally very huge pending bills. As we fight to get more resources directly to the counties, it is my prayer that we strengthen not only the oversight, but also the execution of the first charge pending bills. We know that we are living at a time when climate change has become a global challenge. I wish that we had a variable in the formula that would ensure that counties that invest heavily on mitigation of climate change get incentives. We should start looking at things from a global approach and should be future-centric. We, as leaders, must become responsible and know that we have a moral obligation to leave a continent, country and counties that are safe for the future generations. This cannot happen unless we invest and get involved. We must be intentional and put variables that will create incentives. With that, a number of our citizens will participate in matters that will go a long way towards mitigation of climate change."
},
{
"id": 1570396,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570396/?format=api",
"text_counter": 287,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I wish that the Committee on Finance and Budget came up with a variable that will cater for counties that have huge forests. This is because those counties are always disadvantaged. The density of their population is always undermined or disadvantaged by the forest coverage. I am talking about a county like Nyeri that has 40 per cent forest cover. We may not have people living in those forests, but we should be rewarded for being the owners of this important component to the country and the global stage. We know that the strategic plan made by many counties are not married to the audit report that is given. We should leverage that with modern technology, to make it easy for us to have a follow-up. With that, we will have a consistent way of tracking what we are supposed to achieve within a particular time. With such technology, it would have been easy for us to follow up on President Kibaki’s Vision 2030 or Uhuru’s Big Four agenda."
},
{
"id": 1570397,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570397/?format=api",
"text_counter": 288,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this will ensure that we do not lose a lot of money. When we went to Turkana, we visited the fish landing port in Lake Turkana and were dismayed by the neglect of the place. This is despite the fact that a lot of money had been put in the investment. That investment was ambitious and it could have been life- changing. It was neglected because the successor of the county government could not see the vision that was driven by their predecessor. Therefore, we must get a way of ensuring"
},
{
"id": 1570398,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570398/?format=api",
"text_counter": 289,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"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."
},
{
"id": 1570399,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570399/?format=api",
"text_counter": 290,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "that each successful governor takes over and pays the pending bills. Most importantly, they also have to follow the national and county footpath for us to have continuity."
},
{
"id": 1570400,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570400/?format=api",
"text_counter": 291,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "We have very huge potential, both at the national and county governments, but we must create mechanisms within which we can fight corruption by making the officers accountable. We must also train and build the capacity of our people for them to be in a position to complain. Capacity building will not just be for the elected leaders, but also the general public. We should have civic education as it was before we introduced public participation. It is something that we need to ask ourselves, as a country, if we need to go back there or should we introduce it in our curriculum from the early childhood education for it to be ingrained in our children. If we do that, it will become part of our culture. We know that this country has a huge potential. We know that the richness and the diversity of every county, if well managed, can be a major contributor to the economic growth of this country. However, most of the times, we find ourselves engrossed in petty politics. We forget that our diversity is what makes this country as beautiful as it is and it is what makes it very rich. We forget that our cultural difference could be the richness that we need to ensure that we become a stronger community."
},
{
"id": 1570401,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570401/?format=api",
"text_counter": 292,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "As we move forward, and as we debate sharing of the revenue among the counties, let it not be lost to us that development in any part of this country is development across the country. That is why I want to join hands with my colleagues and say that no county should get less than Kshs6 billion. The reason being, if we consider economic growth, inflation rate, taxes such as the Housing Levy and all the other components, including the progression of human resources within counties, it is evident that this leads to additional costs. Therefore, it would be prudent to ensure that growth in human resources, salary increments, recurrent expenditures as well as increased taxes and inflation shifts are incorporated. If we factor these components, it would be fair for Senators to advocate for a county government allocation of at least Kshs460 billion. This would ensure adequate funding for recurrent and development expenditures and facilitate the overall progress of counties. I want to emphasize the importance of strengthening the oversight role. Additionally, we must embrace modern technology, including artificial intelligence. This will ensure that we track the utilization of funds in development and assess the socio- economic impact of allocated resources. This will prevent a situation where, after 10 years of devolution, we are left asking what tangible progress has been achieved. I believe this country is on the right path. However, we cannot fully achieve our goals unless we are intentional about transferring all devolved functions and ensuring they are accompanied by adequate resources at the county level. This raises an important question. Do all county governments have the capacity? However, that does not matter. We must also encourage the formation of regional blocs where counties can pool resources, such as field extension officers and agricultural extension officers, especially in regions cultivating similar crops. This approach will encourage counties to invest in their strengths while trading with others that produce different commodities. For"
}
]
}