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{
    "id": 1462750,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1462750/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Tabitha Mutinda",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It is good for Members to appreciate and note that the issue of the Equalisation Fund is a constitutional issue. After the enactment of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 is when the Equalisation Fund was put in place under Article 204. Further to that, the exact duration is 20 years. I heard one of my colleagues talk about 10 years. The duration that the Fund had been given is 20 years, and is supposed to lapse in the year 2030. The Equalisation Fund was set aside to look at the four issues of concern; that is water, roads, health facilities and electricity. It is more specific to the regions that have low developmental levels as far as these four areas are concerned. There are 34 counties that have been identified through the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) using the eight parameters of the formula. They did not just come up with figures and decided blindly, but followed a process. The process was constitutional and has all the parameters that are needed. These funds were to go down to the village level through the constituencies. You will realise that each county has constituencies that were to benefit from the Equalisation Fund. Is the Equalisation Fund new? What is the issue before the House from the Committee on Finance and Budget? As I started moving, I said, we sat down with the former Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planing. Our question to the Cabinet Secretary was very simple. We asked when they were going to disburse these funds. He gave us a timeline. The issue before us is when these funds were to be disbursed to the beneficiary counties. It is not about additional allocation of the funds. The animal that is before the House as far as the Equalisation Fund is concerned, is the disbursement of those funds. Madam Temporary Speaker, one issue is the point that the National Assembly has reduced those funds. However, the critical issue is the disbursement of those funds. That is where the problem is. Apart from the amounts being a challenge, the issue is when those funds will benefit the people of those counties. Article 204 says that there is established an Equalisation Fund into which shall be paid 1.5 per cent of all the revenue---"
}