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{
    "id": 1422563,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1422563/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 184,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, thank you very much. I join my colleagues in supporting this Motion. At the onset, I agree, in totality, with the Senate in their proposed amendments to the Division of Revenue Bill. The Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee is a noble man and very good student of economics and finance. In very simple and layman’s language, the Senate amendments are saying that the counties need much more than what we have allocated them. We should increase the money from Ksh396 billion to Ksh415 billion. The Senate is not telling us to remove money from the NG-CDF and Road Maintenance Levy Fund. It is simply saying that counties require much more than you have given them. So, it is incumbent upon us to look round in the Budget of Ksh3.9 trillion and find out where we can get the extra money and re-allocate it to the counties. The Senate is communicating in plain and simple language. I am one of those people who will totally oppose removing money from the NG-CDF and interfering with the Road Maintenance Levy Fund. We know that the counties deal with very critical functions that go to the heart of the common people at the grassroots. They are in charge of agriculture, health, water, social services, rural roads and all those other functions that are critical. What happened in this country in the past that we must deal with and confront? It is a fact that we devolved these functions without doing proper costing. The end result is that counties were given functions which they are unable to perform and without the requisite funds to manage them. It is a historic duty of this House to right these wrongs. The only way to do it is to be reasonable or sensible and address these issues objectively. My layman mind tells me that even the Ksh415 billion that the Senators are proposing is still way below what county governments need. In the fullness of time, we might find that the county governments require much more money. I am proposing that after this current budget cycle we agree as a House to perhaps constitute a special Committee to look at all this issue of functions and their costing. Unless we do that, we shall continue to starve the counties of the monies that they need to perform the functions that they have been accorded. Therefore, this is brainer, and I want to plead with my colleagues to support this Motion and note the amendments as proposed by the Senate. Thank you."
}