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{
    "id": 1488277,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1488277/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 374,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Turkana East, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Nicholas Ng’ikor",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this chance to reject the Senate Amendments to the Division of Revenue (Amendment) Bill. We all support devolution. We do not understand why senators have failed to play their role of ensuring that there is no misuse of money that is meant for devolution. They have just taken another route of looking for ways of getting more money for the counties and yet, the monies that have been allocated to counties so far have not been properly accounted for. There are so many cases of corruption in our counties. These issues have been brought to the Senate, but we have not witnessed a single case that has been handled satisfactorily. The senators have been misleading Kenyans that they are protecting devolution but, in actual sense, they are killing devolution by not playing their oversight role. The Senate Amendments to the Division of Revenue (Amendment) Bill is not the way to go. It looks like the senators do not understand how this country is doing in terms of the economy that is supposed to support this Amendment Bill. We have to reject these amendments. The two Houses should agree on the right ways of funding the counties. The senators should protect the money that has already been sent to the counties, instead of supporting governors to fight this House when it comes to building roads through the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) and NG-CDF. Those are national Government functions. It is this House which is mandated to allocate resources to the various Government departments, including the counties. The money that is spent by KeRRA and NG-CDF on roads go to the same counties. The funds are from the national Government. Why are governors fighting that money and yet, it goes straight to their counties? In fact, it goes down to the villages unlike the money that is shared amongst the counties, which is concentrated at the county headquarters. Devolved funds should trickle down to the village level, just like NG-CDF and KeRRA funds for roads. It is time for us to tell the senators the truth. They should not continue misleading Kenyans in the name of protecting devolution. The senators must perform their role of protecting devolution by implementing the recommendations of the Auditor-General. Several reports have come to the Senate, but they have never acted on them. It is not right for them to continue facilitating a fight between this House and the Senate. They need to be told what they are supposed to do. They need to work for the benefit of Kenyans, instead of facilitating fights between us and them. With those remarks, I reject the Senate Amendments to the Division of Revenue (Amendment) Bill."
}