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{
    "id": 1581314,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1581314/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Tabitha Mutinda",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Government and the county governments. Most of our young people, especially young women, work as CHPs. Therefore, they needed to be factored. Annual wage increment is within the law. The other critical thing was the basic salary increment as per the doctors Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which amounted to Kshs3.5 billion. We have seen through and through our health sector professionals demonstrating and surrendering their petitions before this House. Their petitions were highly on financial matters. That is why adding the figures that I have just talked about, we as a Committee representing the Senate, the ‘upper’ House moved in the mediation with the agreement that we could not go below Kshs420 billion. As I said earlier, this mediation process was not an easy tackle. This is because our respectable colleagues from the National Assembly moved in and from the beginning, they stood at Kshs405 billion. We moved down from Kshs465 billion to almost Kshs430 billion, but they did move not an inch. How discouraging can that be when you have gone to the table to mediate and have a common goal for the common interest of our people? We walked in, we walked out. We came in, we came out. All the Senators spoke with one voice. We had a condition before we embarked on our last meeting. We said that if the National Assembly was not going to move an inch higher, we would not embark on further mediation. In the last meeting, we left when the National Assembly had moved to Kshs410 billion and everything indicated that they were not willing to continue with the process. Therefore, the process was to end at Kshs410 billion. We also stood firm and said we will not embark on any further mediation if they will not move an inch. Through our firm decisions, we were able to conclude at Kshs415 billion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, sometimes when I talk about these figures in terms of billions, I am not so happy. We talk about billions and we have increased Kshs28 billion to the county governments, but the thorny issue; the biggest animal in this country is the pending bills. We have increased these funds because of the issues that the governors have raised. This money does not go to the governors, by the way. It is for the devolved functions. When our young people keep on hearing us talk about billions on this Floor, the other day I saw the people of Nairobi waking up as millionaires and sleeping in the evening as the poorest people; from a millionaire to the poorest person because their businesses were brought to zero. When on this Floor we talk about the billions that we have given to each and every county, the lowest county is receiving Kshs3.8 billion, which is the great County of Lamu. Nairobi City County is receiving Kshs21.4 billion. However, our people economically are still having challenges because money is not rotating. The issue of pending bills should be sorted out. It has just been left to a few. I emphasize this because we want the governors to sort out the animal of pending bills. We cannot be on this Floor talking about these figures and there is a Kenyan somewhere who is just seeking to be paid their pending bill by the county government. We have increased a whooping Kshs28 billion, as I said earlier, we need to see change, but change to whom. The education system that we have in this country has empowered our young people. It is a system whereby our young people today are very 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."
}