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{
"id": 1051957,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1051957/?format=api",
"text_counter": 194,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 373,
"legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
"slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
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"content": "billion this year. The Kshs370 billion now has come, but in a very interesting form. Hitherto, according to the Constitution also, counties will get equitable share and conditional grants from the national Government‘s revenue share. It is actually in the Constitution. Three conditional grants that have been there in the successive years is the Fuel Levy Fund, Road Levy Fund, Level 5 hospitals, village polytechnic and user foregone is the fifth one. Those have now been converted into equitable share. That is how we got Kshs370 billion. In fact, equitable share remains at Kshs316.5 billion, and it is to all. No additional money was given. It is only conditional grants that have been converted. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on the conditional grants, we expected that there was policy guiding it. There was a reason the Level 5 hospitals were funded in the manner they were. They were not in all the counties. They are in about 11 counties now. The other counties do not get it. That money has now been distributed to everybody. The people who used to benefit on their own will now have to look for other monies and fund it. On the village polytechnic, the Kshs2 billion was for everybody. That has no problem. The user foregone of Kshs900 million is for everybody, and there is no problem. When it comes to the Road Maintenance Levy, the policy in the law that is in place in terms of road maintenance has been there even before the current Constitution of Kenya 2010 came into effect. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there was a reason we put in place the Road Maintenance Levy and tax fuel users, so that our roads are maintained. The fuel user levy is governed by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) Act. The successive legislations, which have been made for the road authorities, apportion certain percentage to various authorities such as the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA), the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA). The 50 per cent as per the current law, which has been enacted mischievously, because the Kenya Roads Bill that was mediated with no agreement has been accepted to be now law. In that one, some percentage was set for the counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this money is utilized in an annual investment programme, which is submitted by the authorities. Counties are required also to submit to the KRB, so that it is properly planned and audited. This money is going to be equitable share. It will get lost. In fact, counties will wish that was so. This is because the Kshs9.3 billion will now be divided equally among counties. That will not share its roads. It can be used for buildings or buying cars. We have lost a whole policy in the legal framework of fuel levy. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not see the sense going forward for Parliament to approve that. Parliament, in totality, must reject because if Kshs9.3 billion is taken out of the about Kshs350 billion, what we need to do is to get the extra money as promised by the Executive. The other serious crisis that is bedeviling this country is the debt issue. We were told during the COVID-19 crisis that Kenya will borrow some unimaginable figures per day. Later, we heard that even the COVID-19 monies that were received and budgeted for were all stolen. We hear what is called ―COVID billionaires‖. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}