Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1186026,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1186026/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 271,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "raised by Sen. Olekina. The Supreme Court’s decision made it clear that we needed a separate instrument for us to transfer these conditional grants and loans. In fact, it states under Section 3 that the object is to facilitate the transfer for Conditional and Unconditional Allocations made to counties under this Act from the Consolidated Fund to the respective county Revenue Funds. The counties cannot wait a second for this money to be transferred because as you can see from the schedule it even incorporates money for two financial years. That means that many counties have put up with non-allocation of this funds for a long time. I am also happy that the Bill has provided a mechanism for the National Treasury to be the one to facilitate the agreements between a county government and a development partner. This means that the National Treasury will facilitate a governor who goes out there together with the leadership of the county to secure an agreement with a development partner. The agreement or the arrangement between the county and the developing partner where the county will require a specific grant for supporting a specific matter that is unique to them will be facilitated by the National Treasury. I like the use of the word “shall” because we have had a lot of complaints in the past. The counties would negotiate agreements with certain institutions in matters such as waste management but the National Treasury would be an impediment to some of those agreements being reached between county governments and the donors. I know these are matters because I have been involved deeply as the Secretary General of Orange Democratic Party (ODM). I am also in support of the fact that we now have a schedule for the Equalization Fund under Article 204 of the Constitution of Kenya. I want to start with that particular schedule because this is a matter that was very dear to us, at least in the Azimio Coalition, when we were campaigning. In fact, it is public knowledge that we had proposed to extend this particular fund for a further 30 years. That was one of the promises that we made. I am happy that even though we did not get to implement some of these proposals that we had made, I can see that there is a lot of agreement from both sides of the aisle on the importance of this particular fund. I doubt that I will meet with much resistance if I were to bring a Bill under Article 204(7) to extend the time frame for this particular fund. Under Article 204 of the Constitution of Kenya, there are four main areas that this equalization fund is supposed to address; water, health, roads and electricity. It is to address those areas to bring up the quality life in the identified counties to what we, in the other counties, are enjoying. I am happy to see an allocation of Kshs178 million under the equalization fund for Homa Bay County. My good friend, Senator for Homa Bay County is not here but I can testify on his behalf that Homa Bay still relies on a generator in places such as Mfangano, which we were discussing here the other day. I am sure that this allocation will go a long way. Kajiado County has an allocation of Kshs562 million. This county has very serious issues with access to water and my neighbour and Sen. Tobiko can bear me witness. Kitui County is to get Kshs538 million and Mandera County is to get Kshs1billion for water. Narok is to get money for water and health services."
}