Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1134241,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1134241/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 47,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "they were born. They do not imagine that there is a Kenya bigger than themselves. In the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, we have seen them exclude the rest of the country and more deserving cases when allocating some of the funds that we are talking about. President Uhuru Kenyatta said in the speech that he read before the nation on Jamhuri Day on 12th December 2021, that Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) continues to be a deferred dream. He said that BBI was all about sending additional resources to our counties hence he should not oppose the proposal of this Committee to have Kshs539 billion go to our counties. If he supports this proposal, it will be clear to the nation that he believes that 35 per cent of the resources that are shared amongst ourselves need to go to the counties. One does not have to do a constitutional amendment because the Committee on Finance and Budget has proposed a better way of achieving it. Let us wait to see the reaction of the National Treasury for us to know if the President indeed believes in the statement and the things that he has mentioned in the public. Mr. Speaker, Sir, debt continues to be a nagging issue. The Chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Budget and Sen. Wetangula talked of our continued struggle with the National Treasury in obtaining the debt register. Believe it or not, the Senate of this Republic has asked the National Treasury to furnish Parliament with our nation’s debt register more than ten times. The best we ever got was an excel spreadsheet that was sent to us in one of our sessions with the Cabinet Secretary (CS) of National Treasury. We were told that it was the closest thing they had. It is possible that we have borrowed so much to a point that we do not know who we owe at this particular point and we just end up paying. This continues to be the biggest struggle of our economy to this particular day. It will be a travesty of justice and a dereliction of duties on us, as Senators, if we conclude this session of Parliament without laying to rest the question of debt and how it continues to bother us, as a country. Debt has a financial effect on the division of revenue of our country. It is noted in this statement by the Committee that the first charge to the national revenue is to clear the debt even before you think about paying salaries to civil servants. As it is today, we continue to pay more than Kshs1 trillion. If we allow this particular issue to continue without giving a final answer, it will be unfortunate. Finally, I want to speak on the issue of deductions of counties resources which is a trend that the National Treasury has continued with. It began with Managed Equipment Service (MES) and we were not able to get answers. The Chinese, crude as they are, allow us to, first, collect revenue then they make their deductions or they allow us to send that which we owe to them. A new trend is emerging at the National Treasury and it cannot be allowed to be the modus operandi in our country. This is a challenge to Sen. Kajwang, the Chairperson of the Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations. Yesterday there was news in our national media that there is a proposal for National Treasury and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to transact directly"
}