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{
    "id": 1565538,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1565538/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts on the Division of Revenue Bill (National Assembly Bills No.10 of 2025). This Bill essentially presents a vertical share of our national resources. What has come from the National Assembly is that in the next budget year, we aim to have a budget of Kshs2.7 trillion. Out of that budget, the National Assembly is proposing that the national Government gets Kshs2.4 trillion which is 85.33 per cent. It then proposes that we give the counties Kshs405.069 billion, which is 14.28 per cent of the total budget. I am alive to the fact that ordinary revenue is at times not connected to what we hope to get. I, therefore, empathize with that fact. However, the requirement of Article 203 of our Constitution is about equitable share of national resources. I have said a number of times in this House of how I wish the National Treasury was independent. If it was independent, then it would be in a position to view the national Government and county governments as different which would then be a fair avenue for sharing resources. It behooves the National Treasury to ask itself if the sharing formula proposed here, the vertical share, is equitable. One would ask: how will we know that it is equitable? The element of equity will come when one revisits the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution aligns resources to functions and those functions are clearly stipulated. We do have national functions of Government and county functions of governance. The idea of equitable share has been elusive to the country because we do not cost those functions. I am a Member of the Committee on Finance and Budget together with the Senator who spoke before me, the Senator for Kakamega County, though he likes to look at me as his son and not a legislator in his House. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale will remember that when the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning appeared before our Committee, I told him that if he does some things, he will be on the borderline of underfunding counties. I also told him that there are things that he will do which will lead to defunding counties. Those two distinctions are still elusive to the National Treasury. This House recognizes the immense challenges counties face in fulfilling their mandated functions. They are not merely underfunded, but outright non-funded. They are fundable, but remain unfunded by the national Government. The proposal allocates Kshs405 billion to counties. However, if you do the calculus, as I will outline briefly, you are in effect defunding counties. This is not a matter to be taken lightly. You may recall, on a lighter yet serious note, I was recently thrown out of this House for insisting that the Cabinet Secretary for Health should not transfer the payroll of Universal Health Care (UHC) workers to counties without ensuring it is accompanied by the necessary funds. This should not even be considered, let alone attempted. He should not dream of it."
}