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{
    "id": 1403488,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1403488/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "serious loses because of non-collection of garbage and dumping of soil on the riverbed in that particular area of Ngong River. I had a conversation with a young contractor who had come to my office. He had been contracted to collect garbage. After receiving the contract, he went to the suppliers of machinery, that is backhoe loaders and trucks and got a loan to finance the project thinking that he would make some money and pay for the equipment. By the time the guy was seeing payment, he had to abandon work and his machines were repossessed by the financiers.They were auctioned at a lesser value than he bought them. He was also required to pay for the difference in value of what he took and what they fetched in the market at the auction. We have this phenomenon where if you go for payments in the county governments and do not know somebody to push it for you, then nothing is going to be done. The young man was in tears. If you have that conversation, allegations are that you cannot be paid a pending bill until you agree to part with 50 per cent of the payment. These are not stories. That is the life of many of the contractors that are in our country particularly in our county. The Motion that has been brought by the Senator for Narok is timely. He has made some recommendations here. The first one is that the Senate recommends that all county governments pay verified pending bills amounting to less than Kshs1 billion by the end of this financial year and those above Kshs1 billion by the end of Financial Year 2024/2025. When I hear my counterpart from Nyeri say that they have no pending bills then our friends from Baringo want to impeach their governor because of pending bills of Kshs115 million, I wonder which world is this that Nairobi City County cannot live in. We can also be at zero pending bills. I support the recommendation. In fact, I have been an advocate of ring-fencing money for pending bills. As you have heard, at the rate we are moving, if Nairobi City County gets Kshs20 billion every year in equitable revenue, it will take us five years doing nothing, but paying pending bills. It will take five years’ allocation to get to Kshs100 billion in order to clear our pending bills. I agree with the recommendation here, that county governments must prioritize payment of pending bills. If those bills were being paid, garbage collectors would be working. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I forgot to tell you that if you look at the report of the Auditor-General, for the year ending June, 2023, the number of stalled road projects which are under constructions, including roads and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) facilities, are over 50. Some of them include works that would have made the situation with flooding a bit better than it is right now. We have stalled projects with sports facilities as well amounting to Kshs64 million. These are pending bills owed to people who are supposed to be completing construction of sports stadia in Nairobi. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I, therefore, agree with the proposal that county governments must prioritise payment of pending bills as a first charge on the County Revenue Fund (CRF). However, we do not understand why this is not being done even as it is because that is the law. The law is that we pay our debts first before we do anything 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."
}