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{
    "id": 1400479,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400479/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 167,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I go on record supporting this Bill by the Senate Majority Leader on the national rating. I have spoken before on the own-source revenue issue. We have several counties that are receiving a lot of funds and they are unable to account for the funds but in the same spirit, they are not producing much in own-source revenue. As a matter of fact, the statistics are very damning, and I am glad that Sen. Mungatana acknowledges that Tana River is one of the counties that receives a lot of funds in the supplementary budget and the Equalization Fund, yet, for many years, they have been unable to account to what these funds are doing on development and the return on investment. I was happy when I went through this Bill on national rating on how to streamline and give legal framework on revenue collection of levies and properties in counties. This is because we have seen in the news and over the years, all these whistle-blowers in the counties saying that there is a lot of corruption. This corruption is now geared and targeted at the own-source revenue, which comes from land rates and fees. Madam Temporary Speaker, for instance, if you look at Nairobi County – and excuse me for using this example – Nairobi is one of the counties that brings in a large amount of own-source revenue. However, if you question how that revenue is being used and the extreme measures taken to ensure that certain rates – some of them that are completely crazy in amounts – you will be unable to get any answers to the questions that you ask. The idea of establishing a tribunal in the National Rating Bill to even oversight at what is happening at the county level and streamlining that space is about time. I wish the Senate Majority Leader was here. This because I am requesting that they go even further, that above ensuring that this tribunal is used to settle the disputes on levies and payment of properties, we should be looking at how we are channelling at this own-source revenue coming from the land rates. Sometimes, you go to counties and there is no infrastructure. Look at Nairobi: when it rains, we practically swim on the roads. You ask yourself, being one of the counties that is collecting a lot of money from property rates and levies, why that money is not channelled into ensuring that our infrastructure such as the drainages on our roads are maintained. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}