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{
    "id": 1502630,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1502630/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 62,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "the allocation to counties, even if it be marginal in exceptional years such as this, when we do not have a Finance Act in place. The third principle that we agreed on and we were able to convince our colleagues in the National Assembly, is that the county governments can never bear any shortfalls in revenue, since the national Government has more headroom in budgeting. The most important principle is, it is them who draw up these estimates. It is the National Treasury that comes up with these estimates, and you will remember that during that particular process, county governments have absolutely no role. It is for them to make sure that if they project revenues and there are shortfalls, that burden cannot be borne by county governments. I believe, having agreed and set those three principles, it is going to be very easy going forward, for us to agree on this process of division of revenue. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was also a very interesting conversation. Sometimes Members of the National Assembly feel that we accuse them of not understanding the needs of the county governments and the need for them to serve the people. One of the things we agreed on in this mediation was that there are no Kenyans who belong to county governments and Kenyans who belong to the national Government. That all Kenyans belong to all these governments. The 47 county governments and the national Government. As a matter of fact, your ordinary Kenyan, the people of Mathare, or a voter in Mathare, does not care who comes to repair a bridge that has been damaged after a flood. They just want the bridge done. Therefore, this back passing and blaming each other on who is supposed to get what, is something that the common mwananchi does not support. They just want work to be done. That conversation was interesting because it was being heard in the context of the existing role between the Council of Governors (CoG) and the National Assembly on the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF). This is where the county governments have taken the National Assembly to court claiming a portion of the monies that are collected under RMLF to do our roads. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is an acknowledged fact that there are certain classes of roads that belong to county governments so they are the responsibility of county governments. This tussle between the National Assembly and the county governments does not help anyone. You live in Nairobi and all the time remind me that your children voted for me. They are complaining about the state of the roads in Nairobi. Everybody is complaining about the state of the roads in Nairobi all across---"
}