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{
"id": 1502737,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1502737/?format=api",
"text_counter": 169,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kisang",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 2263,
"legal_name": "William Kipkemoi Kisang",
"slug": "william-kipkemoi-kisang"
},
"content": "digitize, you reduce, minimize wastages, and seal leakages, just the way the national Government has done, and revenue has grown by 6,000 per cent. Last week, we were told by His Excellency the President that the Kenya Wildlife Service’s (KWS’s) revenue grew from Kshs4 billion to approximately Kshs7 billion, using e-Citizen. Soon, they will not need any money from the Exchequer. We want to reach a level where our counties are not relying on the shareable revenue. That should be coming to do development projects. The county governments are relying on shareable revenue to pay salaries, buy medicine, do infrastructure projects, and what is barely left, in most of the counties, the resources that go to development are less than 10 per cent. So, basically, our counties are like an employment bureau. Recently, as the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, we went to Wajir County. Apart from the County assembly that is being built and the Governor's office, you do not see anything else. When you move around, you do not see much. This is replicated everywhere in Kenya, apart from maybe the resources they get directly from donors, like the World Bank to do the roads in the major towns within the counties. Otherwise, there is nothing else. They have built Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres for the last 12 years. Counties are just using money to build Early Childhood Education classrooms. In Elgeyo-Marakwet County, I have not seen anything much that has been done. We were in Turkana County last year for Senate Mashinani . The Governor's office has been built for the last 12 years. It is not complete, yet they have spent over a billion to do a small thing. The same applies to Tharaka-Nithi County. The other day we were told they got money from conditional grants, but the buildings are not complete. So, we want the governors to digitize their services to seal leakages. Our business community, especially the transporters, have multiple levies. You transport a bag of sand from Makueni County, you pay levies, you come to Machakos County, you pay levies; you come to Nairobi City County, you pay levies. Our governors need to digitize and use their resources well, so that our people can benefit properly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I believe we need to increase our oversight role. We need to visit the counties and partner with MCAs, so that we ensure the executives at the counties do proper implementation of projects and they put in enough resources to complete projects within one or two financial years. This will be so that projects do not go on and when a new governor comes in, he shelves the projects that were started by the predecessor and eventually, no one benefits. On the RMLF, I agree with the governors. I know they have gone to court. This is money we should not give to MPs. The business of the National Assembly is the same as Senators; to do legislation, oversight and representation. Anything that touches development should be done by the national executive or the county executives. These funds should be given directly to the governors. With those few remarks, I support and ask colleagues to support, so that by the time we go for our long recess, the governors can access more resources and the Controller of Budget (CoB) should expedite and release resources to counties by approving. I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. 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."
}