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{
    "id": 1134148,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1134148/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 128,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13179,
        "legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
        "slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
    },
    "content": "As you realise, we are living in hard times because of the COVID-19 related problems. With the Omicron variant and other problems, I hope we will not lock down the economy. From what I have seen, we have locked the whole world for almost 18 months, but diseases keep on increasing from one country to another. I urge Kenyans to be vaccinated because it will enable us to have a healthier nation that is more productive and supports the growth of the economy. In terms of county allocation as per the Budget Policy Statement, proportion increase to the allocation of revenue to the counties has decreased from 22 per cent in the Financial Year 2017/2018 to 17 per cent in the Financial Year 2022/2023. Due to the handshake agreement, when the revenue stalemate came, there was an increase of Kshs500 billion to the counties. Despite this, we are underperforming by 5 per cent. This is not acceptable. If we were able to generate more money, then counties should get more money. Pending bills have increased to Kshs102.69 billion. I always speak about pending bills because they have significant impact on how our economy, GDP and businesses grow. If counties and the national Government owe money to people, the ability to invest is impacted and they cannot finance their debt, which will result in many Small and Medium-term Enterprises (SMEs) to fall. When business falls, the more we have unemployment. The more revenue shortfalls, the more we will have investors not interested in investing in this country. We will become more uncompetitive compared to our counterparts in this region."
}