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{
    "id": 1464061,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1464061/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 396,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, do you want me to repeat that? The Seconder is keeping you busy. There are these things that the national Government and county government are co-funding, such as the industrial parks and Community Health Promoters. On industrial parks, we have said that we are going to make sure that the ones that were started are complete and that is fine. However, on Community Health Promoters, we are taking half. If we are taking half, we need to indicate to ourselves for how long we want to do this. Is it going to be an annual national ritual thing to support Community Health Promoters when we know very clearly that this is supposed to be done by county governments? That is another critical area in terms of cleaning the amount of money that get to county governments. The other thing is the sustainability of these Community Health Promoters. If the national Government pulls out its bit, what happens to them? This is a very critical question that we must answer ourselves. On industrial parks, let us say the national Government puts in Ksh250 million for the 18, and on the other side, the county government does not place their Ksh250 million because it is not a priority to them at that particular time, what happens? What happens to those counties that this is a priority to them, yet they are not in the 18 that we started with? These are areas we may need to check. At the end of it all, can we do some analysis in terms of where this money goes? A county may be in the 18 for purposes of the industrial parks, then the same county is in for some grants and some money from a different source. Where are we? Are we able to check that? I see that certain counties may be left behind while others may be getting much more in the end, thereby bringing in some inequalities. If you look at grants for the last five years, the ones that we have had have been going to particular counties over the years, whether it is urban development or those things that are supported by grants. If those areas also get fertiliser, industrial park and another, what happens to the other areas? That is a very critical thing that needs to be looked at. The other issue is on royalties. Hon. Chairman mentioned that this has not been very clear. But there are areas where many things are happening in the name of mining, whether artisanal or not. Look at the amount of money that is generated from “explorative or explorations” in gold and artisanal mining in gold in Kakamega, Siaya, Bondo, Migori and the rest. It is quite a huge amount of money. Where do we bring in these counties? At what stage are we able to check through all these things so that the people who are doing it get to know that they are supposed to be paying royalties to the county government? That is another critical thing that we need to look at clearly. The issue of court fines and stuff like that has been very clear, because initially there were municipal courts. However, there are areas where there are no municipal courts and their money is swallowed and goes as part of the Judiciary to the Consolidated Fund. This needs to be streamlined so that counties can have these as their own sources of revenue moving forward. Therefore, I support this. However, I believe that a bit of effort is required as we move forward."
}