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{
    "id": 1406055,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406055/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 383,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Tabitha Mutinda",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. Allow me to start by thanking our Secretariat, the clerk assistants, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and the legal team that has worked with us in the Committee on Finance and Budget. I thank all Members who assist this great committee. I will not forget to thank my colleagues. I am a new Member of Parliament (MP) and this is one of the committees that I serve with a lot of pride. When I sit with Members of this House's leadership like Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, the captain and doctor to be Sen. Ali Roba, Sen. Faki, and youth Senators like Sen. Oketch Gicheru, I take pride because I have learnt a lot. Our committee deals with matters. We have had the privilege of having stakeholders who are frequent in our deliberations and discussions of the different bills we have. Some of the stakeholders are led by the National Treasury. The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) plays an important part. The Council of Governors (CoG) and Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) are amongst many other stakeholders that also play an important part. I have decided to note that because the House needs to know the journey the Committee has walked, keeping in mind where we are coming from. Last year, I had the privilege of tabling the Bill. During voting, I endured the disadvantage of having to amend the figures from what we had tabled as a Committee. Our offer was Kshs407 billion, but it had to be reduced to Kshs385 billion. I have always raised a concern in the committee in terms of the issue of the last audited reports. Sadly, we have to wait for the National Assembly to approve the audited reports. The Constitution states that we use recent audited reports. The last audited reports approved by Parliament are for the financial year 2020/2021, yet we are in the financial year 2023/2024. We are soon closing the financial year 2024/2025. When you ask about the cause of the delay while we have a running Parliament - this should be one of the priorities of the National Assembly. We ask them to prioritise the audited reports, so they can be current. When you look at the 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2022/2023 financial years, it is only the COVID-19 period of the financial year 2020/2021, where revenue was low. We all know this is because of the pandemic. From there, when you look at the revenue reports, these amounts have been moderate increments. When you look at that, you wonder why, sadly, the National Treasury and the National Assembly Committee on Budget would sit and propose Kshs391 billion to counties as an increment of Kshs6 billion. You will note that the rate of inflation has gone high. All our 47 county governments also borrow from our commercial banks. The last message I received on my phone from one of my bankers was that the interest rate of borrowing is about 21 per cent. Therefore, interest rates at the commercial banks have also increased. How then do we add Kshs6 billion according to their proposal? Previously, we added to Kshs385 billion. We were coming from Kshs370 billion. That is an increment of Kshs15 billion. So, how do we go down and lower more than 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."
}