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{
    "id": 1165130,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1165130/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 378,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Mwaura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13129,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Maigua Mwaura",
        "slug": "isaac-mwaura"
    },
    "content": "you have not received money for January and we are finishing the second month of the third quarter. The fourth quarter begins in the April. That means that the Financial Year is coming to an end. There is always this issue that monies are going to be returned at the end of the Financial Year but the truth is that no monies are returned. It is just that two things happened; monies are not released on time and when released, it is done one day to the end of the Financial Year. It is a ping pong game. The National Treasury is playing games with Kenyans but we need to have a higher conversation. Senators are talking about counties and pending bills and what have you. The truth of the matter is that the country is living beyond its means. A country like Rwanda who are our friends and neighbour in the East African Community have a coalition of the willing that we can travel using an Identification Card (ID) and not a passport. In Rwanda, you cannot raise any expenditure in government if you have not received the money and not even having it in the budget. People are procuring using budgets, yet the budget is not released. In Rwanda, having an item in the budget does not necessarily guarantee that there is going to be money anyway because our economy is a hand to mouth economy. We collect monies and every Thursday they are disbursed Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we can do Bills here as it has been proposed but I can assure you that they will not cure anything. In fact, Bills are rendered useless by virtue that there is no money. What will a law provide for if there is no money to disburse anyway? A law would only work if there is certainty that the money is there. Laws are made with that understanding. Even if we pass the Prompt Payment Bill, the Exchequer will not be released on time because the National Treasury is spending all it money in paying debts. Why not restructure the Budget? Why not cut our cloth according to size? This issue leads to a greater conversation that we must face. It is possible that we over devolved and that in the long run, our county governments are not sustainable. Most of county governments rely on the National Government for funding. Mr. Temporary Speaker, if counties were functioning well, they would survive on their own source revenue but that has also not been properly mapped. The Bill to pass own source revenue has stalled and has not been passed as well. People do not want to be transparent on how they are raising their revenue. The biggest culprits are the big counties of Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru and Mombasa because there is real revenue being collected. Salaries are a problem and hospitals are running down. If the situation persists, I predict that the salaries for the Members of Parliament (MPs) is going to be a problem very soon."
}