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{
    "id": 1232758,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1232758/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the last Senate, I was involved in mediation only once. The CRA was able to rationalize the duties and functions of county governments in relation to the national Government. In most of their recommendations, they were able to take us through the process. It looks like that we did not go through that process this year. Nonetheless, they were able to take us through the functions especially the agricultural functions. Currently, we are having problems of high cost of production and fertilizers. I want to thank the Government for coming in with interventions that they have given us subsidized fertilizer. I come from a grain growing area and that has helped us quite a bit. However, we also need to look for long lasting solutions which will enable the devolved governments to do what they were supposed to do. This is because the devolved governments have areas that they have been assigned in the Constitution in the Fouth Schedule. According to the Fourth Schedule, agriculture and health are 100 per cent devolved except for policy. The reason I think that if we allow our Committee to have a mediation session it would yield fruits, is the fact that, there is one nice indication that has been proposed in this Division of Revenue Bill on the transfer of library services. It may be time for us to transfer even some of the activities in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives and some of the activities in the Ministry of Health. It might not require real new money. We may be able to transfer money that is already resident in the Ministries and just relocate it. So, an amendment to support our Committee would have really helped in the mediation stage to look at the areas that need to be moved. It will not affect any other function of the national Government. It will only require that we relocate and allow our funding to flow. Mr. Speaker, Sir, currently, if you look at the budget that has been given to the Ministry of Agriculture and 7 per cent of what has been allocated to the counties; the Ministries in the national Government are still holding more money than the money that goes to the counties as far as those areas are concerned. When we listened to the County Revenue Authority (CRA) in the last Senate, it was able to give us the percentages that had been approved in the Maputo and Abuja agreements. They told us of the percentages that should be going to health, education and agriculture. If we used those as our standards - we are actually obliged to do it because we have signed these agreements - you will find that some of the areas where the county governments are suffering is just because of the non-transfer of the functions that have been given to them. I was very happy to see that the library services are being transferred. I would really urge that through our Committee, we get to transfer more activities. Let us analyze what is being held by the Ministry of Agriculture that should be going down and then transfer them to the counties. The point to transfer is when we are dealing with the Division of Revenue Bill. This is because, if you transfer the function and it is followed by money, that money will go automatically, without looking for new money."
}