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{
    "id": 1426528,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1426528/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sir. Let me begin by appreciating the work done by our colleagues. Although I do not support the report, I appreciate the work that they did. I do not support this mediation report for the following reasons. Giving excuses that county governors are not using the money appropriately is not enough for the role that we play. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Kshs9 billion that we fought for, which is what these county governments are eventually going to get, is peanuts. The national Government is notorious for coming up with projects that they want county governments to fund. The projects are such as the industrial parks and the Community Health Promoters (CHPs) where the President says they will fund it at 50 per cent and governors also fund it at 50 per cent. I completely disagree with the Committee for having settled for an extra Kshs9 billion. It is very misleading when you give reasons and say that the amount going to county governments is about 24 per cent. The current accounts that we are looking at are accounts for the financial year 2020/2021. So, there is absolutely no way we can argue that more money is going to counties. If you look at all these Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database Systems (IPPDS); these payment systems, automatically adjust to inflation. Why is it that the money that we send to county governments does not automatically adjust to inflation? Mr. Speaker, Sir, I think we need to be firmer. We need to do what brought us here; to fight for more monies to go to county governments. We should not be in a rush to pass this because of the Appropriations Act. It is about time that we studied the decision by the Supreme Court and defined different Appropriation Acts. If you go to the United States of America (USA), there are 12 Appropriation Acts. There are those that are mandatory. When Congress is unable to agree, they must pass for certain services to proceed. Mr. Speaker, Sir, finally because of time, I thank Sen. Eddy for having developed a formula for what is discretional and non-discretional. For example, the Housing Levy and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) are non-discretional. The only discretional funds which are being denied to 29 counties are the county aggregation industrial park. What are we going to tell those counties? You come out and say that the policy is to develop industrial parks across the country and then you deny 29 counties that money? Come on! 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."
}