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{
"id": 1483898,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1483898/?format=api",
"text_counter": 256,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13217,
"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
"slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. I would like to support the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget for this report. I agree with them that they should reject the amendments from the National Assembly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I always get impressed by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget. I can see a number of Members in the House. This is authority. The last time they were supposed to cut down the money from Kshs401 billion to Kshs380 billion, they brought us a rejection that the counties should get Ksh401 billion. I support the Finance and Budget Committee. That the amendments that were done by the National Assembly are not in good faith. If the National Assembly had good faith, they should have cut their National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) money because it is unconstitutional and illegal. Even the Supreme Court has ruled it out. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in fact, it is in my constitutional amendment of 2024, that I am trying to salvage the hanging on of the NG-CDF allocation under the budget. The upshot of this is in Article 202 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya where, you are trying to allocate additional funds to counties. Apart from equitable shareable revenue, there is additional funds and own-source revenue. We must agree as a nation that what the Finance and Budget Committee has done is impressive. We should support them. If you look at the Financial Year 2024/2025, counties were supposed to get additional funds of Kshs61.9 billion. However, the National Assembly cut that down to Kshs46.5 billion. Counties will lose almost Kshs15.4 billion which is very unfortunate because it will affect many programmes. Instead, we should be cut foreign travel, chai, mandazi, flowers and newspapers in our offices, then reallocate those funds to the counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if, for example, the counties were to lose Kshs15.4 billion, if they cut it to Kshs46.5 billion, counties like the one we were discussing in Isiolo, Elgeyo, Marakwet, Nyamira, Tharaka Nithi, will lose Kshs528.1 million that was supposed to be used to support the construction of county headquarters. The reasoning behind the Senate was that these counties received the lowest allocation through shareable revenue. Therefore, we thought by giving them additional funds of Kshs528 million would assist them to build county headquarters. 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."
}