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{
"id": 1231399,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1231399/?format=api",
"text_counter": 253,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 13165,
"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
"slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me mention this, not that it is something worth causing an alarm. If you listen to many experts on national security, they will tell you that in as much as Kenya continues to pride itself as a super power, other militaries across East Africa have actually eventually caught up with us; that while they used to come and train here in the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s, almost all our neighbours have overtaken us. If you look at, be it the war planes that we demonstrate with so much gusto and pride during our national holidays, many were bought by the first and second President. After that, we have not been able. That is not a very good phenomena or a place to be, given the fact that we have neighbouring countries that for one reason or the other, are always envious of our country. There are so many other things that we can speak about. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Kenya is part of the global community. Nonetheless, we have never refurbished or have our embassies housed in decent places. I have sometimes had the unfortunate incident of travelling and you get surprised when you are shown where your embassy is. Countries that are of lesser economic abilities than us have their embassies in more strategic locations in these countries as opposed to ours, many of which are hidden in far-flung parts of those cities. This is just to explain the debate that exists and plays out in the minds of you, as a Member of the Committee on Finance and Budget, listening to the presentation, both from the National Treasury, Controller of Budget and the likes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Bill proposes to allocate to county governments Kshs385.425 billion for the Financial Year 2023/2024, as equitable share of revenue raised nationally. The equitable share allocation has been proposed to increase from a base of Kshs370 billion allocated in the Financial Year 2022/2023 to an allocation of Kshs385 billion in Financial Year 2023/2024, an increase of Kshs15 billion. The equitable share allocation in the Financial Year 2023/2024 has also been proposed to include Kshs425 million as attendant resources for the payroll relating to library services transferred from the Kenya National Library Services. Library services is a devolved function as provided for under Part II of the Fourth Schedule of our Constitution. Therefore, these are functions that have been transferred to counties, for which an allocation is being provided for because in the previous years before this particular Bill, many of these employees were being catered for under the national Government. However, after the passage of the Bill on County Libraries, by and large, all our counties will take care of their staff in their various libraries. If you calculate that, it gives you Kshs425 million. The rationale for the proposed county governments equitable revenue share is as proposed: The proposed equitable share of Kshs385.425 billion in the Financial Year 2023/2024 is equivalent to 24.5 per cent of the last audited accounts, which is Kshs1.6 trillion for the Financial Year 2019/2020, as approved by Parliament. The proposed allocation therefore meets the requirements of Article 203(2), which states that revenue divided between the two levels of Government should at least be more than 15 per cent of the last audited accounts."
}