Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1077410,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1077410/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 122,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support the County Allocation of Revenue, Bill because the counties need money. We created a devolved system, which is the counties, because we wanted them to get services closer to the people. It is important that they get money on time. My colleagues have narrated many issues where people are not getting money. There are many problems and services are not given and business people are not being paid. In these Covid- 19 pandemic times, counties need money. Having listened to the Chair and my other colleagues, I find serious policy issues that deal with how we manage our devolution that still need to be addressed. We have a formula for doing Division of Revenue Allocation at the county level. We also know how this formula brought a lot of issues in the Senate. Last year, it was the Division of Revenue Bill that brought issues. Luckily, we have gone through that. We had a problem with the formula which seemed to stress two things: the number of people and the expanse of the region. It is true that if you have 100,000 people to serve who live in, say, ten square kilometre in an urban setting, and another 100,000 people who live in 200 square kilometers, the services that they need can be provided at extremely different courses. Therefore, considering the number of people and the expanse is important. What has been missing, however, and all the Members are saying it, is a proper formula. As it is, they are flat rates and they do not take into consideration the needs of individual counties. We have seen this before. That is what the problem is in the Division of Revenue Bill. The budgeting process starts at the counties to a large extent when the money has been divided. You then wonder, other than the formula, has anyone looked at the needs of the counties? Hon. Speaker, the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee is here. I would like to say that we must, as a country, try to see whether, apart from the formula we have put in place annually… It should be important to find out what the needs are of individual counties exactly the same way as we do with the national Government when we are dealing with the departments and agencies. By the time we sit here with the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), we are quite clear of what the needs are. We do not give them what they need, but it gives us some guidance. So, if we have that formula which is tampered with actual needs, we will go a long way. That is one issue that we need to raise."
}