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{
"id": 1403486,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1403486/?format=api",
"text_counter": 133,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13599,
"legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
"slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, before you get to the end of that statement, there is no way of me knowing you are talking about me, when you start by Deputy Minority. It could be Leader or Whip. So, until I heard the last word in your statement, I did not know that you were speaking about me. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am speaking to this House on a very difficult day for the people of Nairobi. As I speak, many of our people are marooned in their homes. I have seen videos and photos of people on rooftops. Some homes and roads have been swept away. As I speak, footbridges in places like Kamukunji, those connecting Kamukunji to Makadara and Embakasi West, have all been swept away because of the rains that are going on. We have a humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Mathare Valley, especially at the hospital and Utalii wards. At this particular point in time, we want to acknowledge that the Nairobi City County Government is overwhelmed. We urge the national Government together with all the national emergency services to be mobilized in order to save lives in many areas of the City. There is a connection between what is happening now and the Motion that is before this House on pending bills. One of the things that break my heart is that every time we discuss problems in counties, Nairobi City County is always at the top of the list in terms of being the worst. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you can remember, just a few weeks ago, we were discussing the question of pending remittances to pension funds, including Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPFUND) and Local Authorities Provident Trust (LAPTRUST). Three quarters of the money, which was about Kshs48 out of over Kshs60 billion that was owed to the funds, was by Nairobi City County which had the bulk of those unremitted funds. Just recently, there was a report on the number of teenage pregnancies across the country. Again, it did not surprise me that we were number one on that list. Any time there is a problem across the country and there is ranking, we are always at the top of the worst possible lists. It is not another surprise that as we discuss pending bills, out of Kshs160 billion owed by 47 counties, Nairobi City County has Kshs107 billion. I thank the Senator for Narok for this Motion because it is meant to save the people of Nairobi City County. The breakdown of Ksh107 billion pending bills contains the following. There is the report of the Auditor-General for the year ending June, 2023. There is an analysis of pending bills which we are speaking about. That is Annexure 2 of the Auditor-General’s report. First, there is a lot that is made about Kshs20 billion that is owed to lawyers in Nairobi City County. Whereas many things have been said about it, we would want there to be an audit process where all these bills are taken through. There was an attempt by the government of Governor Sakaja when they came in. They brought in taskforce to check whether, indeed, all those bills are payable. I know it was chaired by Senior Counsel Kamotho Waiganjo. There was an intervention by the 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."
}