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{
"id": 1460765,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1460765/?format=api",
"text_counter": 317,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Baringo North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Makilap",
"speaker": null,
"content": "A reduction of Ksh20 billion meant for the county governments is evident in the Supplementary Budget 1, which is the main Budget that we passed in this House. The Exchequer did not release the money allocated to the national Government totaling to Ksh410 billion and Ksh30 billion meant for the counties. Adding Ksh380 billion to Ksh30 billion, the total is Ksh410 billion. Many people will see it as if there is an increase, but it is not. It is what was not financed being brought forward. If you add Ksh380 billion to Ksh30 billion, it becomes Ksh410 billion. When we say division of revenue and using the approved audited accounts of national revenue, the House should request the Auditor-General to fast-track the auditing of the national revenue accounts as we also fast-track its approval. This is so that we rely on the 2022/2023 or 2023/2024 audited accounts instead of the ones for 2020/2021. If we head towards that direction, the amount of money that would go to the county governments and the national Government will rise as a result of the latest revenue. However, five years down the line, you will get less money. The country needs to know that, perhaps, we have a Budget like the one that we have but, at the end of the year, the national Treasury would not be able to release money to the county governments because of a shortfall in revenue collection. Kenya Revenue Authority should target to raise around Ksh270 billion to Ksh300 billion or above. But as long as we collect less, our Budget will only be good in figures but in reality, the cash flow to the county governments and the national Government will be less. If the courts oppose or undermine the many mitigations that are meant to raise revenue, the National Treasury will not have enough money to finance the Budget. Therefore, there would be a shortfall in the national Exchequer releases. As a result, we will get pending bills both in the national and county governments. We must also have a conversation with the Judiciary. As they condemn Parliament for lack of participation, one of these days, we shall also ask the Judiciary to take their rulings for public participation and we ask Kenyans to tell them their opinions. The uprising in Bangladesh is as a result of a court ruling. Those rulings at times affect the citizens of this country and can be a source of an uprising in Kenya. Kenyans need to know that with pending bills, the county governments and the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) are unable to get all their money at the end of the financial year. The KRA is unable to raise all the money that is required using the approved revenue-raising measures because of litigations in court and, hence, the burden being forwarded to the next financial year. It will be worse now that the courts have already pronounced themselves on the Finance Bill, 2023. The Chairman of Budget and Appropriations Committee should prepare another supplementary budget which is simply another main budget. As a result of negating the Finance Bill 2023, we may, again, resolve another reduction of the Budget and, as a result, the Budget and Appropriations Committee will, again, prepare another supplementary budget or re-introduce the Finance Bill, either in piecemeal, or as a whole, so that the country can survive. Those are the realities that are facing the country. If you look at the audited and the approved budget accounts of 2020, 2021 and 2022, it is about Ksh1.5 trillion. What could have happened if we had used the 2023/2024 Budget? The Government and every deserving entity would have gotten more money, but the reality is even if we do this, we will not raise enough as anticipated in the revenue raising measures. We shall have a Budget in figures but in reality, we do not have the money to run the country. What do we do then? Generation Zoomers (GEN Z) and other authorities would express themselves as they have done. We must live within our means. If the county governments were to live within their means with their programmes, how much would it cost and how would it develop the country? I was part of the stakeholders of this country that reviewed the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. We wanted the county governments to create wealth, and not to be sources of “eating” areas. We want the county governments to create industries. How do we develop this country? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}