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{
    "id": 1015693,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1015693/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute and add my voice on the subject matter on the Third Basis for sharing of national revenue to counties. The counties have suffered enough. It is important that whatever issues we have with it, we pass it so that we have a room to further ventilate and discuss the matter. I have looked at the formulae, first of all, the one that was proposed by the CRA and the one amended by the Senate. From a casual look of it, some of the parameters that are proposed here and in typical regression analysis, there could be a case of multi-linearity, that is to say, quite a number of these parameters are related and are a consequence of another. Therefore, this means that at the end of the day, there are counties that are bound to benefit because of multiple factors that are more or less related. For example, land area would naturally go with population in some cases. Likewise, land area is such an amorphous system to use because land that does not attract people means that that land is not reproductive, and probably, marginalized. It does not make a lot of sense to allocate substantial amount of percentage to the same. Nevertheless, I do believe our colleagues from the North Eastern areas and the Northern frontiers have been very passionate about the land issue. However, it is important that we appreciate, as a country, that they have the equalization fund; accepting that it has got a sunset clause. However, we do believe that if it will be implemented in the 20 years that were proposed in the Constitution, we should then be able to address the challenges that seem wanting and need to be addressed on this matter. Indeed, it is important, as my colleagues from the lake region have said, that the parameter of agriculture seems to be narrowly defined because we have not seen the sub-parameters that are included in agriculture. I come from a constituency where half of the people solely depend on fishing – the blue economy. Without very clear understanding or appreciation that agriculture encompasses the wider definition including fishing, then our communities will remain disadvantaged for many years to come. The systematic discrimination that started with Sessional Paper of around 1963 is more or less finding its way again on this particular revenue sharing formula. I would want the Budget and Appropriations Committee to unpack what they mean by “agriculture.” On another point, we have the issue of health which is also not very clear. Is health measured by the number of people who go and record formal visits to hospitals or it is measured by the number of people who fall sick and do not seek medication? Many of our communities, because of lack of medicines in hospitals, have generally sought and treated themselves using 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."
}