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{
"id": 1527206,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527206/?format=api",
"text_counter": 356,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Marsabit County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Naomi Waqo",
"speaker": null,
"content": "When I looked at the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill, 2025 which was published on 6th February 2025, I told myself I must support it. This Bill was first tabled on 14th for processing and approval. It was consequently, read a First Time on Tuesday, 18th February 2025, and committed to the Liaison Committee. Today, this honourable House is debating it. The Bill provides for the transfer of conditional and unconditional allocation from the national Government’s share of revenue and from development partners to the county governments for the Financial Year 2024/2025. Many counties have not been receiving their allocation of funds on time. Today, I challenge the National Treasury that if money is allocated to counties, the money should be released on time. We blame county governments, but they also blame the National Treasury, simply because Treasury does not release funds on time. As we approve and support this, it is high time our National Treasury put measures in place so that funds can be released on time for counties to be effective and functional. Additional allocation to counties is provided for under Article 202(2) of the Constitution, which stipulates that county governments may be given additional allocation from the national Government’s share of the revenue, either conditionally or unconditionally. Further, Article 190 of the Constitution contemplates additional support to county governments to enable them to perform their functions adequately. In the past, counties have not been receiving their funds. Sometimes, they even stay for eight months. When they do not receive the funds, imagine the number of families that suffer because members of staff are not able to receive their salaries. In addition, those who have worked with the county government are not able to receive their money and therefore, the impact which is not positive is very huge. For those reasons, we should make sure that the National Treasury releases funds on time so that counties can function. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I was looking at the analysis of the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill, 2025 and I realised that the First Schedule shows conditional allocation to county governments from the national Government revenue. This comes from the national Government out of the resources that we collect on a daily basis. That is why we should demand that the money for counties be disbursed on time. The Second Schedule shows unconditional allocations to county governments from the national Government for court fines for the Financial Year 2024/2025 collected by the Judiciary from the contravention of county government legislation. The Third Schedule contains conditional allocations from proceeds of loans or grants from development partners. These are three different and very important categories. As I was going through, I again realised that not all the counties benefit from all this. The allocation in the First Schedule contains allocation for the following expenditure: county aggregation of industrial park. The county aggregation of industrial parks initiative is a priority programme under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). I remember very well during the campaign time, as United Democratic Alliance (UDA) people, we used BETA to drive our campaign. Everybody believed in us, and we said things will be different. Our approach was bottom-up and we wanted to empower people, ensure that citizens will do business, have affordable life and also, have enough money in their pockets. However, today, when I go to the ground, people challenge me because we used to say, “ pesa mfukoni ” while they say, their pockets are now empty. That is why we need to make sure that we go back to that Agenda and empower our people so that they can create their own wealth. I also want to encourage every county, because as I said, not every county has benefited from all this. We should make sure that all counties can benefit and do what other counties have done so that they can get these grants. We know very well that there are different ways that different counties use on the sharing of cost for Community Health Promoters. Once this The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}