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{
    "id": 1566386,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566386/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "that money at the Ministry of Health here at Afya House instead of sending all that money to the counties? We can calculate and we know what a stipend is. What is this obsession we have in our country of holding on to resources that we do not need, even people's salaries? At least we know that if Sen. Eddy is looking for a kickback, there are no kickbacks in people’s salaries, at least sign that out. . Mr. Speaker, Sir, good people, I want to ask of us, that as we consider the Division of Revenue Bill (National Assembly Bills No.10 of 2025), let us passionately fight and stand up for devolution because this is the last battalion of defence. If you let this country down, there is no likelihood whatsoever that anyone will ever remember that there was need. We understand that there are challenges, Sen. Omogeni. Devolution is not as popular as the National Development Constituencies Development Fund (ND-CDF). That is a fact. It is not rocket science and it is for obvious reasons. The ND-CDF is managed separately. Even us we must learn to appreciate what made the ND-CDF to be as popular as it is, is the fact that they do not utilize the level of human resource that we utilize in our counties. That is why 98 per cent of that Fund goes to actual budgetary programmes, things that are tangible and people can see, including schools and things that ordinary citizens would wish to identify with. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you are a county government and 50 per cent of the Kshs10 billion you receive is paying 3,000 or 4,000 people in a county of a million people, people will say; wrap these things up, we do not want them. Therefore, part of defending devolution is to ensure that we make it work in the way that it was designed. The way that it was designed is to make sure that people feel resources getting into their pockets. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge my colleagues that as we begin this conversation and the re-awakening that we have, we must all stand together and appreciate that there will be challenges and that we may not achieve that which we set out to achieve immediately or at the time of first asking. However, as a House, we must make a firm decision that is in the best interest of the country. Yesterday or two days ago, I watched something from the former Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair of the National Assembly. He was addressing himself to a number of issues. I began to appreciate the challenges that we have. There is something the late President Mwai Kibaki used to say about people being suddenly very clever. I saw the gentleman trying to tell us that we should not borrow. Even the budget that we are using in this financial year; it is that gentleman who passed it on the Floor of the National Assembly, with a fiscal deficit of almost 5 per cent. How is it that suddenly he has discovered that borrowing is bad? This House has been pushing and insisting--- Mr. Speaker, Sir, our BSP report for the last 10 years, the Senate has always maintained that we do not have a fiscal deficit of above 3.3 per cent, including the report that we passed here. As Senate, we have been very clear on these things. Our colleagues who are in the National Assembly cannot be the ones lecturing the country at this particular time. They cannot be telling us, “oh, you do not need to do this"
}