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{
"id": 1406034,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406034/?format=api",
"text_counter": 362,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ali Roba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to second the Division of Revenue Bill as moved by the Senate Majority Leader. I would like to take this opportunity to inform the House that the committee had taken diligent steps in terms of subjecting the Bill to public participation, where a number of stakeholders have participated; including the National Treasury, the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), the Council of Governors (CoG), the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the County Assemblies Forum (CAF), Katiba Institute, the Rift Valley Budget Hub, the Lake Region Budget Hub, and the Youth Senate of Kenya (YSK), in terms of trying to pick the opinions that they had in coming up with recommendations to this House. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the most important issue that we picked as a committee is the fact that the Bill had an error in terms of anchoring of its base. The Bill considered the base for allocation both by the CRA and our colleagues in the National Assembly as Kshs374 billion as opposed to Kshs385.425 billion. This is anchored in the Division of Revenue Act (DORA) which is a law. Hence, that error cascaded into an erroneous indication of consideration that stated that the Bill had considered an increase of allocation to county governments of Kshs16.6 billion, whereas the actual allocation as considered was only Kshs5.6 billion or thereabout. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have also thoroughly interrogated the Bill and we realized a major error. Whereas the CoG appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget, they have been making a feel-good political statement whereby they end up making pronouncement such as we will share 50/50 without looking at the implication it would have on their budgets. For example, the issue of aggregation of markets and the Community Health Promoters (CHPs) which they said they will have 50/50, without looking at budget implications. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we interrogated, we also looked at issues that the Senate Majority Leader has shared. There are legislations that have financial implications to county governments, which is the agenda for the national Government to pass. For example, the housing levy and the NSSF and the implication it will have on the payroll of county governments is an issue that we looked at. Looking at these issues, we determined that there is non-discretionary expenditure, which county governments will not avoid. For example, issues to do with the current strike of doctors. The national Government, through the Ministry of Health, has already committed that they are going to pay the arrears amounting to over Kshs3 billion in terms of when the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was signed up to 2024. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, from when the arears are settled, county governments are required to inherit that expenditure directly. That also amounted to an average expenditure of about Kshs5.8 billion, which is not discretionary. There is no way 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."
}