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{
    "id": 1134377,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1134377/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Hargura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 827,
        "legal_name": "Godana Hargura",
        "slug": "godana-hargura"
    },
    "content": "If the overall budget has increased by 9 per cent and the revenue estimate has increased, then what informs this idea of not adding more funds to the counties? That is why I agree with the Committee in their proposal that the counties be given Kshs495 billion. This is where I would like to see whether this House has any impact on the budget-making process. According to Section 25 of the PFM Act, this is where our input should be seen. There must be a change in the allocation given to the counties or what the BPS says about the county allocation of Kshs370 billion. Last year, when passing the County Allocation Revenue Bill, we did not include conditional grants on the understanding that there will be a different law or mechanism of releasing the grants to the counties. Up to now, nothing has been released. These grants affect major sectors like health and the development of the Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP), which was used to develop county headquarters in some areas. That has not been released either. If we continue that way, we are under-funding the counties. If the Kshs370 billion is stagnant and the conditional grants are not released, that means we are literally strangling counties. We should not be part of that kind of a process as this House, which is here to protect counties and their governments. Madam Deputy Speaker, the national Government has retained most of the functions like health and water. However, the worst part is that you will find the national Government at the county level drilling boreholes and constructing small pans, yet this is a county government function. The national Government does this in the pretext that it us using borrowed funds, like the African Development Bank (ADB) is funding those programmes under the Ministry of Health. You wonder if the counties cannot get that money to do those projects instead of having duplication and the cost of implementing of those programmes. Madam Deputy Speaker, this shows that the national Government has not accepted that the counties need to do the functions they have been given. Every time anything happens, everybody is ready to blame counties like they are not performing well, yet the funds are not given to them, but are held by the national Government. In the case of the old sector, you would find that the national Government maintains its own funds like the Roads Maintenance Levy Fund. What is given to the national Government entities like the Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA), the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) and the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) still goes that way. However, the one that goes to the counties has been put under equitable share. Basically, there are no funds for maintenance of roads in the counties. When we asked for Kshs50 billion, part of it was for the Roads Maintenance Levy Fund. The 15 per cent that goes to counties has been put there. It is unfair because an important sector of the county government function is not working and the roads are not being maintained because we have diverted the money. It is better we insist that the money is reinstated to a conditional grant and delivered to the counties."
}