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{
"id": 1570393,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570393/?format=api",
"text_counter": 284,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "they need. There was a major mistake that we did in the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution. We created so many counties and, therefore, duplicated very many roles. Indeed, if we would spin the wheel of time, we could have created like 12 or 15 counties, so that we do not have to duplicate so many roles, and create units that mostly are defined along ethnical lines. Having said that, I have looked at the formula and the report as proposed by the Committee on Finance and Budget, and indeed, they have done a good job. However, there is one question that has been lingering in my mind, and that is, why do we not get a variable that will ensure that we give incentives to those counties that practice financial prudence? This will encourage innovations, encourage a lot of startups, and most importantly, get a variable that will encourage counties to ensure that the young generation gets involved in creation of cottage industries. In any case, we are where we are, and we must face it as it is. Indeed, I support the Committee on Finance and Budget Report with various amendments. One, it is unfortunate, and I say this as a patriotic Kenyan. We have continued to use the poverty index for the last 10 years of devolution. I wish we could have paused to ask ourselves what the effect of this equalization or this affirmative percentage that we have allocated to counties has been that we think are disadvantaged. I think by using modern tracking formulas, we could have tried to track down this 14 per cent that was there previously. Now, it is 12 per cent. What impact has it had on counties? Having visited many marginalized counties and being involved in the construction industry, I realize that 80 per cent of the landmass of Kenya does not contribute in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this country. This is a very unfortunate. The problem is not that we only devolved the units and the functions, but most of the crucial functions were left in the central government. When I was the Chairperson of the Committee on Energy, we paid a visit to Wajir and Mandera counties. We were quite dismayed by the fact that they run their power generation using diesel generators. The distance that the trucks have to travel to deliver the heavy oil to land the diesel makes it almost unaffordable for anybody to use that as a means of production. That is why we have to rethink the way we distribute our resources, the way we connect our people to the main grid and the strategic plan that we must embrace, as a country, to ensure that even the 80 per cent of the landmass of this country contributes to the GDP and hence, leading to increased revenue collection. Having said that, let me also quickly note that we need to look at innovative ways of tracking whatever we disburse to the counties. More so, we have to leverage modern technology, that is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, with the auditing functions. Moreso, we know that most county governments and especially those who get heavy amounts--- I am talking about counties like Nairobi, Kiambu and Turkana that have equally very huge pending bills. This would be my prayer to my colleagues, to the sitting governors and to those who are interested in becoming governors.We must be alive to the fact that most of the counties give their contracts and service provision from small scale traders."
}