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{
    "id": 1545770,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545770/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Chute",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13583,
        "legal_name": "Chute Mohamed Said",
        "slug": "chute-mohamed-said"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to thank the committee led by my friend, Sen. Ali Roba, for this Bill. Similarly, I take this opportunity to add on what the Senator of Kitui County has just said. I want to start with the Second Schedule on the Road Maintenance Levy. I sit in the Committee on Roads with the Senator Wambua. The Cabinet Secretary came before our committee and told us that he has Kshs 7 per litre added on fuel levy and he was going to use it for offsetting pending bills. If I am not wrong, the collection is about Kshs75 million every year. Surprisingly, he is discounting that money six years in advance. That means, he will borrow money or ask an investor to collect it on behalf of the Government, but pay it in advance so that he can settle pending bills. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to support what my colleague has just said. If they will use the Kshs7 at least half of it should go to counties. We had an opportunity to have a county governor who is in charge of roads. I think it is Governor of Kiambu County, before our committee one time. He said that they have thousands and thousands of kilometres of roads in their counties that are not being managed by the counties because they do not have funds. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if today the Cabinet Secretary wants to take the Kshs7 and the Kshs15 and the National Assembly wants to take it and control the roads in the counties, then why is the Senate here? What are we doing? We are supposed to support and protect devolution. Article 96(1) says very clearly that this Senate serves to protect the interest of the counties. In that case, if we allow the national Government, I do not want to use the language that was used by my friend, the issue of girlfriends and women. The work of the National Assembly under Article 95(4)(b) is to appropriate funds. It is not to turn into contractors. Similarly, Article 95(5)(b) is very clear on the job of National Assembly, which is to exercise oversight. How can they oversight funds and at the same time manage the same? That will not work. Yes, we have a problem in the counties, but that does not mean that because of mismanagement of county resources, we will divert monies from the county governments to National Assembly. Let me take you back to First Schedule which talks about conditional allocation for the construction of county headquarters. We, the committee in charge of devolution, 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."
}