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{
    "id": 1027103,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1027103/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 292,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "counties have concluded their budgeting and their Appropriation Bills have already been enacted. This amendment proposes that for the next two financial years, the effects of the formula that this House is going to adopt shall not be felt. My second principle is that we should not have gainers and losers. I feel disheartened when speakers step to this podium to talk about ‘us’ verses ‘them’. This is not a conversation about winners and losers. It should not be a conversation of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. This should be a conversation about Kenya. What do we expect to achieve in two years? We have cynics and optimists in politics. I belong to the optimist’s school of thought. A day is a long time in politics. I was not aware of this amendment until today, mid-day. I congratulate Sen. Kang’ata because he has seen the light and has accepted to come down despite his hardline position over the weekend. Initially, Sen. Kang’ata wanted the formula proposed by Sen. Kibiru to be applied immediately and that would have disrupted the budgeting of the counties. As at yesterday, the concession was a moratorium of one year, but we do have a moratorium of two years today and that makes me glad. Two years in politics is a long time. The optimists like us believe that there will be other political processes that will result in an increased allocation of resources to the counties. That will help us avoid a scenario where we have gainers and losers. Those of us who sit in this House have a solemn duty of allocating or dividing revenue between the national and the county governments. We have put here a defeatist argument that we are sure that we shall never get more than Kshs316.5 billion when it is our constitutional duty to negotiate with the National Assembly and the National Treasury to increase the resources that go to the counties. We have been let down by our governors in the past and I am not afraid to say that. The Committee on Finance and Budget, led by Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud, would always propose that the counties be given more money, but the governors would go to the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC), sit in a cocoon, and agree with the national Government. The Senate would then be left with egg on its face. I encourage the new Chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Budget to use the vigor that he has used to push for this formula in the next conversation on the Division of Revenue, for the counties to get more money so as to ensure that the loss effect of the formulas that we are talking about are not felt. We have simulations which show that if we increase the allocations to counties by about Kshs10 or Kshs1 billion, no county is going to lose. That is the reason I support this amendment. None of the formulas that have been brought to this House are perfect. Homa Bay County loses in one formula and it gains in another. The size of the cake is not changing; when Homa Bay gains, someone else loses. I support this amendment so as to ensure that Homa Bay County does not gain in this Financial Year at the expense of Mombasa County and that Kiambu County does not gain at the expense of Tana River County. The health parameter in the formulas that are before us are completely wrong. A County like Homa Bay with the greatest disease burden and high prevalence of HIV and Aids is allocated the least amount on that health parameter. Something is wrong with that formula. There are those who are convinced that the formula advances the one man one shilling principle, but if you look at the per capita allocation, it is a fallacy. It is not in this formula. However, we have to take a decision. We are on the horns of a dilemma. As The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}