Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1588122,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1588122/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1204,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity. I thank the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee for this noble task he is doing. I also thank the Committee for the good work that they have done. When you listen to Hon. Makali and the others, they cite a lot of figures. I recently joined a PhD programme and we are statistics. I was put in a group where we are supposed to do a task on probability and I volunteered to do the typing. So, even here I will use prose. I will leave figures to the Makali Mulus of this House. I am glad that we have embarked on zero budgeting and I hope that we make it a reality. I notice that we have been realistic in revenue estimates, but our budgeting is not as responsive. So, we need to be a bit bolder. I hope our expert John Mbadi will be bolder in the next budget so that we have a balanced budget. The 15 per cent allocated to county governments is courtesy of me. Anybody can challenge me on this. They would receive zero. I am, therefore, speaking here confidently, as a person who moved for the 15 per cent when we were in the Select Committee of the Constitution. It had been proposed that we put no percentage, but I fought very viciously. First it was at 40 per cent, which our party was pushing, but this was also disappearing. My amendment at 15 per cent is what has ensured that the counties have no less than 15 per cent. I was, however, reluctant that we would be giving the counties Ksh415 billion. The reason is that the counties are not being very kind to the National Assembly. They are getting substantial amounts of money, but they are still looking at our pot as a National Assembly. Not as Members of Parliament, but as the National Assembly. I request and urge the counties that those of us who are very strong supporters and have adherents to devolution are getting very disillusioned. I do not believe that more than 40 chief executives of the counties can be thieves. I do not believe so. There must be something wrong; either in structure or in the manner of operation of the counties. We cannot just take a quick decision about governors stealing. They are not necessarily stealing; maybe there are some that are stealing, but there is a problem. We must find out what the problem is. We should look from county to county, without being specific which counties, and compare what the National Government-Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) does The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}