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{
    "id": 1075749,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1075749/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 345,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "While he is considering increasing the ceiling of borrowing to Kshs12 trillion, I wonder whether he will find the time to come or he will also be busy on that day. If he does not come, I do not know how this is going to pass through the Senate. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is disappointing that our members of County Assembly (MCAs) in Taita Taveta and Makueni Counties have not been paid their salaries for more than four months. It is very sad. For reasons that we do not know, these people are not being paid. To some extent even our offices do not receive these funds. Perhaps the CS ought to make an admission that there is indeed a problem so that we do not appear to be making law for the sake of it. The Schedule that we pass every year should not be an academic schedule. It is a law. I have said this before and we must repeat and the Chairperson must repeat and reiterate that the CS, National Treasury does not have the opportunity, the right or legal mechanism to go behind the Schedule and use another method of discretion. It makes it sound as if the Public Finance Management Act are rules of a market somewhere in Kathonzweni in Makueni County where you decide as you please when the sun rises or sets. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in terms of monitoring the use of these resources, while we fight for counties, and your governor is very famous for being one of the governors being pursued for assets worth Kshs11 billion belonging to counties, sometimes we do this out of patriotic duty. A lot of our counties cannot show the reason why we are fighting but we cannot stop fighting. Counties are mismanaging funds; they are mismanaging COVID-19 funds. It surprises me that when the country is broke the people who are building in all market places in the counties are county officials. So, where do they get this money from? It is a question that has not been addressed. It is a question that the Chairperson spoke about this morning. He talked of what Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko’s team is doing in the Committee of County Public Account and Investments. We are not seeing teeth to bite these governors. We are not seeing them being chased for mismanagement of public resources. The Chairperson has not mentioned that this budget and the next one will be very dangerous. That is because the next budget will not be implemented by the sitting governors. This is the last budget that they will implement. What Sen. Olekina said is true. The Public Financial Management Act amendments for this year and next year will be very instrumental. The second term governors will find an opportunity to pilfer these funds going by the records and if the audits are in the financial year 2015/2016, they have made their calculations very right. They know that they will be in Hawaii, Maldives or some exclusive island without network by September, 2022, and we will not be able to catch up with them because our audits are late. By the time you will be finding fault, they will have retired to places where you cannot extradite them like Panama or some exotic town in South America, which is unfortunate. We fought for an extra Kshs54 billion to go to the counties but I cannot confidently say that the people of Kenya should not expect any"
}