Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1406041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "If the national Government wants to finance programmes in our counties, particularly for devolved functions, they should send that money to the counties and not pretend that they are funding 50 per cent and the counties fund 50 per cent. That is a deliberate way of gradually taking over some of the devolved functions from our counties to the national Government. We have even seen suggestions on the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE); that the national Government will run the ECDE better and they should help counties in running it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in future, even this Division of Revenue should also include amounts of key devolved functions which are being held in the national Government. This also includes health. There are many functions within the health sector that are still held at the national level. Over 80 per cent of the national budget on health is domiciled in the national Government. We would like to know the devolved programmes they are running. This is so that when we approve the money, we will know clearly that the national Government has these devolved programmes and they are retaining money for them. That also includes ECDE because to some extent, a number of programmes are run by the national Government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know the national Government keeps on saying that counties should seek to improve their own-source revenue and we agree on them on that. However, that should not be used to deny our counties money. Let us deal with governance issues in our counties. That is why the Senate is there and we deal with that. Let not that be used to deny our counties money. We would like our counties to get a fair share of the nationally generated revenue and apart from that, put pressure on them to maximize on avenues for raising money through own-source revenue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know that some of our colleagues are going to be intimidated to go for the Kshs391 billion that the national Government has approved. I ask our colleagues, especially the ones on the other side to please stand firm for the devolution of this country. They should stand firm. We do not want a scenario like the one for last time, when we were given two choices and we went for the lower amount – Kshs385 billion. This is an opportunity to redeem yourself. We are going to redeem ourselves by pushing for Kshs415.9 billion for our counties, whatever happens. I see Sen. Cherarkey is nodding and I hope he is with us on this. We are here because of our counties and we are not here to push for the interests of the national Government. The national Government interests can be pushed in that “Lower” House called the National Assembly. However, in this “Upper” House, we are here to push for the interests of our counties, even though we have problems in those counties. We have corruption and pilferage of our funds, but the Senate should be seen to be doing our work. Our main function is to take money to the counties. After taking the money to the counties, we oversight them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me do my first part of the work – take enough money to the counties. Then I will follow this money to oversight it. However, we cannot say that we want to give our counties less money and behave like those guys in the “Lower” House. Those fellows in the “Lower” House get allocated a lot of money. They 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."
}