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{
    "id": 1232112,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1232112/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 501,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, in Parliament, the term ‘debate’ is a technical one. It is used to say for or against. Today, I support the Report submitted by the Committee on Finance and Budget. In its recommendations, the Committee is urging distinguished Senators to go on mediation. They are telling us that the ‘lower’ House has amended the recommendation and they have deviated from the recommendation by the CRA. County governments are being denied money. They have seen the only way for us to fight for counties is for us to go to mediation and demand for a minimum of Kshs407 billion. Counties are denied money yet it is on record that the KRA has surpassed its annual revenue collection. In fact, I dare say the records presented to this House by KRA show that in 2023, they collected Kshs2.19 trillion. In 2024, they are projecting to collect about Kshs2.571 trillion. That is a net of Kshs380 billion more. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am perplexed as to why counties are only being given Kshs15 billion. The CRA has recommended that counties be allocated an additional Kshs37 billion. If we are to be objective and argue why counties should be given more money, the first point of debate should be what the priorities of the current administration are. The priorities are agriculture, Universal Health Care (UHC), Digital Superhighway, Small and Micro Enterprises (SMES) and housing. All these priorities are for counties. On UHC alone, they are proposing to allocate an additional Kshs45 billion. That money is being retained in the national Government. It is about time we, Senators, remembered what we came to do in this House; fight for our counties. Article 218 is very clear. It says that if the National Assembly or the Senate deviates from the recommendations of CRA, they have to give us a memorandum attached to the Division of Revenue Bill, with proper detail as to why they have done that. In the Division of Revenue Bill, we are being told that county governments are denied money because money is being diverted to the Hustler Fund. The second reason is that the Eurobond is due and they want to pay the entire principal and interest. Who does that? Is it wrong to have a debt? It is not wrong, I dare say. I would hope that we should pay the interest and then we go seek refinancing of the principal amount. It does not make sense. The first priority of anyone in business is to pay their interest---"
}