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{
    "id": 1422516,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1422516/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "ground on this matter. As we reject this Bill, I request that we proceed to a mediation between this House and the Senate so that we can arrive at a middle ground. What are the facts about it? In the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) that we passed earlier this year, we were working with a Budget of about Ksh4.18 trillion. After the passage of the BPS, we reviewed the Budget, slashing close to Ksh270 billion. Therefore, the Budget we are dealing with now is about Ksh3.913 trillion. When we set the ceilings in the BPS, the equitable share we had allocated to the counties was approximately Ksh391 billion. I would implore on my colleagues to get this point: We set the ceiling of Ksh391 billion when the Budget Estimate was Ksh4.18 trillion. Even after we slashed the expenditure of the national Government by Ksh270 billion, we still retained the allocation of Ksh391 billion for the counties in the current Budget Estimates. We have not touched the equitable share that we passed in the BPS. However, when this Bill went to the Senate, in their wisdom, they thought it would be proper that we considered a different figure. Whereas this House is dealing with a figure of Ksh391 billion as the equitable share, our colleagues in the Senate have proposed, in the Motion we are debating, a figure of Ksh415 billion. Therefore, there is a gap of Ksh24.8 billion. These are the ramifications. We are currently dealing with a deficit to GDP ratio of 2.9 per cent, which is a modest deficit. In fact, in the East African region, Kenya is operating on the lowest deficit to GDP ratio in terms of the Financial Estimates that we will be debating later in this House. We want to cap our deficit at 2.9 per cent. Our Budget is inelastic. Whatever amount of money we may want to add to the counties over and above the Ksh391 billion, a certain vote has to give way because we are not dealing with an open envelope."
}