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{
    "id": 1161583,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1161583/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Secondly, counties have not been thinking out of the box on how to increase their revenue. We always talk about dividing the pie and the bread, but no one talks about baking the bread. Soon, we might need a committee on revenue generation because we only have a Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). When everybody talks on paper about allocation in a middle-income economy like ours, then you are in trouble. You will have a challenge down the line. Remember our debt levels, the challenge of unemployment and the cost of living. We really need to have creativity within our governors. I pray and hope, God willing, if the people of Nairobi give me the mandate, to increase the revenue of Nairobi County to Kshs50 billion. We passed the Sectional Properties law here. We need to have an efficient county government that has automated all revenue streams, that is not fighting with its people and carry the people along. Last week I was in Gikomba and the ladies said that they want to pay, but they never see anyone cleaning. Why should they pay that Kshs50? There is the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and General Service Unit (GSU) officers who force out money from people. You will never raise revenue that way. President Kibaki told us that ‘ kulipa ushuru ni kujitegemea’ and because of that, we were able to increase our revenue generation. With that creativity of showing Nairobians the actual service they will get from what they are paying, I am confident that we will increase the revenue. It is critical because majority of the budget in Nairobi County, for instance, goes to pay salaries. That means Nairobians are paying taxes just to keep people in offices. We need to address that. There was a programme by the World Bank that was coming in to help ease the wage burden in Nairobi City County. It is still very necessary. The good thing is that Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) can make certain decisions that will be very difficult for politicians to make. I spoke to General Badi so that before he finishes his term, he can help us rationalise that aspect in the best and humane way possible. This will ensure that we have some headroom. We might blame the governors who have been there. However, without headroom to do development, a county government is just like a cash office. It is like a cashier who receives money and pay salaries. You do very little development. Madam Temporary Speaker, all Senators are sent Exchequer release reports. I do not know whether anyone looks at them, but I look at mine, for Nairobi City County. We have an approved budget of Kshs39 billion. We are now in March. At of the end of February, the approved requisitions of money spent, Recurrent, was Kshs12.5 billion. Look at the time we are in."
}