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{
    "id": 1419737,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1419737/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 110,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The Chairperson talked about reasons why and the formula they came up with the figure that they had suggested in their report. He touched on issues such as lapsing of Managed Equipment Services (MES), national Government priority projects, Community Health Promoters (CHPs) programmes, the new National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) contributions, and annual salary increments. These are all reasons we, as Senators, should support the position of the committee. As the Senator who spoke before me mentioned, that is Sen. Methu, we are meant to protect and fight for devolution. I do not want to see a situation where we go to the same position that we were last financial year, where we agreed to a lesser amount for the counties. As per the Bill by the National Assembly, it is a bit sad that obvious mistakes were made in the Bill. In the Division of Revenue Bill (National Assembly Bills No.14 of 2024), there is a table where the National Assembly was trying to explain how they arrived to the adjusted equitable share base of Kshs374 billion. That was a mistake, to start with, because the amount of the equitable share base was Kshs385 billion that we passed last year. Based on this table, they attributed to the increment of Kshs16.6 billion in the budget for the counties which is not the truth. If we go by the base of the last financial year, they are only increasing a mere Kshs6.5 billion. We cannot support that. There is also another obvious lie that the NationalTreasury is trying to make. There is one thing that we have to make clear to the National Treasury that they are not meant to only fight for the national Government. They are there for both the national and county governments and they need to be fair in their representation. When they mislead Members of Parliament and the President, it is unfair. What our country Kenya has raised as revenue this year compared to the share that the Government is taking and the share they want to give county governments--- We have raised revenue of about Kshs387.4 billion in excess. Out of this Kshs387.4 billion in excess of revenue that was raised, a mere Kshs6.1 billion is what they want to share with county governments. I urge Senators that this time around, we need to have a bipartisan position. We should support the position of the committee and refuse any other persuasion from anybody so that we can say that we stood with county governments. The Senators that spoke before me and even last Thursday acknowledge that we have problems in the counties. There are problems in the counties, but that does not mean because of those problems we should not give them more money. We are going to sort those problems, and we are working as the Senate to do that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as the Senate, we need to start giving proper feedback to the county governments. It is time we stop letting pollsters out there start ranking counties, governors and county assemblies. That should be the work of the Senate. We need to rank these governors so that they know nani alikuwa nambari moja and who became last, so that we can inspire other governors, other county governments, and other assemblies to improve. I would like to suggest to this House that from time to time, we need to bring 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."
}