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{
    "id": 1502653,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1502653/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 85,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "recess. They have no basis upon which to do their supplementary budget because we have not done the County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) for them to know what is their share of the national cake. It would have been completely unfair of us and we would have asked Sen. Sifuna because he knows how to stick to his guns. In fact, he loves opposing more than supporting things. We would have asked them to go there and insist on the Kshs400 billion and not listen to anything else, but are we helping our counties? It would have been our wish to raise those figures if it was possible, but remember the constitutional edict is that this is a determination of Parliament and not the Senate alone. Therefore, both Houses must agree. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I appreciate that because of that provision of the Constitution, our colleagues have done well with Kshs387.425 billion, together with Kshs8 billion from the Equalization Fund. Before we break for recess, we will also pass conditional allocations. By so doing, we will still achieve all or about the intention that we set out when we began this year’s Division of Revenue Bill. I take great comfort in the fact that we, as a House, put our best case forward. However, we are also intelligent enough to listen to what our colleagues from the National Assembly are telling us and the realities that we have to live with. The truth of the matter is that our economy is not doing very well. We are under a debt distress situation; where 70 per cent of the resources we are collecting do not leave Harambee Avenue. They are collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) pays them out, either to foreign institutions or the local institutions that we owe. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must learn to live with the little that we have. I am impressed because when the President gave the State of the Nation Address last week on Thursday, he gave another assurance. However, I do not know why Sen. Sifuna says the President sometimes draws wrong advice from this House. He needs to read the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) report of the Committee on Finance and Budget of this financial year. One of the things we had challenged the Executive to do is that apart from raising taxes, they need to digitize revenue collections at KRA so that they realize more revenue. I am certain that if we were to seal revenue leakages that exist in this country, perhaps we would raise far more than what we are trying to raise with this year’s Finance Bill. That was the finding of this Senate. I am impressed that the President gave a commitment to both Houses of Parliament when he addressed us last week. He said we are in the final stages of digitizing our revenue collection mechanisms to reduce on wastage so that we have more money to share with our counties and development can be realized. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I celebrate and appreciate the good work that our Committee has done. I see they are proposing for us Kshs387.425 billion. Let us make this decision so that as we walk to our villages over the Christmas holiday, we can look at our governors straight in the face and ask them to give a good account of the resources that we have devolved to the devolved units. 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."
}