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{
"id": 1232749,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1232749/?format=api",
"text_counter": 170,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheptumo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13591,
"legal_name": "Cheptumo William Kipkiror",
"slug": "cheptumo-william-kipkiror"
},
"content": "Devolution was meant to benefit Kenyan people and by so doing, allocate money to counties for more development. I served Baringo North as a Member of Parliament (MP). Mr. Speaker, Sir, you also served as an MP. You saw what the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) did in terms of construction of schools and hospitals, before devolution and other facilities like roads, electricity and so on. We saw the impact of what the CDF was able to do. That was the essence of devolution, so that when we allocate more money to counties, we could see more development in our regions. Unfortunately, our limitation of resources as said by a number of colleagues have made counties not to receive enough resources. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my County of Baringo received Kshs6.4 billion in the current financial year. A substantial part of that money goes to recurrent expenditure on salaries and others. The county is left with a small amount for development. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is why in this particular Bill, we are proposing Kshs385 billion to go to the counties. However, if you go to the counties, there is little development. In fact, you see more of what the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) has done as opposed to what money from county governments has done. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to raise two issues in this particular debate. One is the huge sums of that allocation go to recurrent expenditure. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you served as the Governor of Kilifi County for two terms. I know what I am saying is true. Even when you wanted to do much in Kilifi County, you did not have enough money. This is because much of the money given to you went to recurrent expenditure. The other issue is that there is no value for the little money left for development. This is because the roads, hospitals, and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) classes are not done to standards. Mr. Speaker, Sir, apart from suffering from the shortfall of the revenue allocated to the counties, there is need for this House--- That is why Article 96(4) of the Constitution talks about the oversight role of this House on the manner in which the money allocated to the counties is utilized. Mr. Speaker, Sir, that brings me to the issue of the Oversight Fund. Unless, we empower this House to be able to follow the expenditure of that money, we will still have the same problem. This is because we will face two problems. One, the revenue is not enough and the little money remaining for development after recurrent expenditure is also misused in the manner in which projects are done. Mr. Speaker, Sir, one of the ways to ensure we have value for money is to empower the Senate to undertake its oversight responsibility as envisaged in Article 96 (4) of our Constitution. I want to agree with Members who have proposed that perhaps we need to agree with the proposal by the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA) of Kshs407 bilion allocation to the counties. However, it is also important for us to be practical. Today, the country is using huge sums of money to repay the loans."
}