Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1151223,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1151223/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "become governors are not other gods or demigods. They should be people who will be driven to serve the people that have voted them into office. I pray that when we come back to this House, we will have a sober conversation on how to increase the allocation to county governments. We have talked of making it 35 per cent of national revenue, I still believe that 35 per cent of national revenue is not too much for devolved functions. If we have truly devolved roads, health, agriculture and all those functions in the Fourth Schedule, 35 per cent of the national revenue is not even enough to spur that kind of broad based grass root productivity that we so desire. When we come back to this House, we could have stricter scrutiny on own source revenue. Unfortunately, some of the decisions of the courts have tied the Senate's hands when it comes to oversight of own source revenue. I want to congratulate the various Committees of the Senate, particularly the County Pubic Accounts and Investment Committee (CPAIC) led by Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo- Ayacko, Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri and I was also there before. We have insisted that any amount of money that appears in a counties consolidated financial statements, the Senate shall oversight it. In the counties consolidated financial statements we have got equitable shares, conditional grants and own source revenue. We must always stand for the right thing. This House has got a role when it comes to oversight of own source revenue. There is no other Republic called 47 counties. There is one Kenya and these 47 counties operate in this one Republic. One House that represents all these counties is the Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, how can we optimize the own source revenue? Some governors have taken very lazy approaches. Lazy approach would mean that through their finance Bill, they want to increase their taxation rates. If they are going to increase the taxation rates, they should also increase the rate at which they are providing services. Why should I pay more tax in Nairobi City County if garbage is still all over the place? Why should I pay more taxes in Kisumu City County when perhaps I cannot get access to clean water? Why should I pay more tax, property rates in Homa Bay County when I cannot get a road for a truck bringing cement to my construction site? I want encourage our third generation of governors to focus on improving productivity. If we improve and enhance productivity in our counties, then there will be more money flowing and there will be more to tax. I want to give one example. In Homa Bay County, we have allowed a private player to establish a fish cage plant. What this person does is to put cages in the lake, puts fish fingerlings and he takes care of them until they mature. They are applying science in that process. Within a short time, these people are doing a revenue of Kshs3 billion every year. That investor is employing close to 800 persons, most of them women who are involved in removing the scales, cleaning the fish and packaging them for distribution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, even if you look at Kshs3 billion and you say that the county was to impose a small tax of one or two per cent that is money the county could use to provide health services. Let us ensure that there is productivity. There should be economic activity in our counties. Let us tax on the basis of increased productivity rather than taxing on the basis of increased rates."
}