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"id": 240154,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/240154/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kombo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 218,
"legal_name": "Musikari Nazi Kombo",
"slug": "musikari-kombo"
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair. I wish to thank you and this august House for giving me this opportunity to present both the Recurrent and Development Votes of my Ministry. As hon. Members are aware, my Ministry is essentially a service Ministry, whose main role is to advise, co-ordinate, support and guide the 175 local authorities throughout the Republic. The main objective of this support is to enable local authorities to enhance the delivery of services. This will be achieved through improving financial management, accountability and mechanism for citizens' participation in governance. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in line with the Ministry's mandate, the utilisation of the Ministry's resources is targeted at significantly contributing to economic recovery and poverty reduction through the following activities:- (i) Acceleration of local authority reforms linked to:- (a) Improved budgeting and sound financial management practices for enhancement of revenue mobilization. (b) Participatory service delivery, planning and implementation. (c) Capacity building. (ii) Spearheading the implementation of pro-poor development programmes in local authorities through capacity building and disbursement of a poverty reduction fund. (iii) Development of policies, systems and procedures to strengthen and institutionalise democratic and participatory community-based decision-making process. (iv) Formulation and implementation of policies aimed at promoting orderly urban development and addressing challenges of urbanisation. (v) Improvement of solid waste management in order to provide a healthy living environment in urban areas. (vi) Improvement of the urban road network, traffic management, non-motorised transport facilities and road safety aspects to promote faster and safer movement of people, goods and services. (vii) Institute effective disaster prevention and management mechanism. Mr. Speaker, Sir, to achieve these objectives, I am requesting hon. Members to approve a total of Kshs9,416,193,147 for my Ministry during the current Financial Year 2006/2007. Out of this, an amount of Kshs7,323,640,780 is for Recurrent Expenditure distributed as follows:- Personal Emoluments, Kshs119,198,248; Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF), Kshs6,572,750,000; contribution in lieu of rates, Kshs300 million and operation and maintenance, Kshs331,692,535. The total amount allocated for Development Expenditure is Kshs2,092,552,367. The following is the detailed breakdown of the Ministry's Recurrent Expenditure:- Let me start with the Kenya Local Government Reform Programme. As noted in my last year's statement, my Ministry is fully committed to reform the Local Government sector at the policy, programme and local governance level. Towards this end, the Ministry continues to guide local authorities in the preparation and implementation of realistic budgets. Mr. Speaker, Sir, another area of great concern is the financial management in local authorities. So far, the Local Authorities Integrated Financial Operation Management System has been successfully carried out in eight councils. This is a computer-assisted system whose specific objective is to assist local authorities to harmonise and standardise data. My Ministry is planning to roll out the software to other local authorities in the current financial year. The system is intended August 1, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2477 to improve efficiency, accountability and transparency in conducting the financial operations of local authorities. The Ministry is also addressing the issue of implementing a simplified accounting system for local authorities in order to minimise the level of financial mismanagement in the local authorities. The Ministry is now more pro-active in monitoring budget preparations and implementation so that any deviation can be detected early enough and corrective measures taken. On the issue of LATF, Mr. Speaker, Sir, during the Financial Year 2006/2007, a total of Kshs6,572,000,000 will be disbursed to all the 175 local authorities in accordance with the LATF Act and regulations. The LATF was designed as a mechanism to supplement the financing of the services and facilities which local authorities are required to provide under the Local Government Act Cap.265. Mr. Speaker, Sir, LATF is structured to provide both budget support and strong incentives to local authorities to improve service delivery, financial management and accountability and debt resolution. The LATF allocation criteria are designed to ensure that the funds are allocated in a predictable and transparent manner. The LATF allocation is based on the following criteria as per the LATF regulations. (a) A basic minimum lumpsum of Kshs1.5 million for each local authority. (b) Population of each local authority as per the 1999 population census issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics. (c) Urban population of the local authority. With regard to LATF disbursement conditionalities, for local authorities to qualify for the receipt of LATF, they must fulfil the following major conditionalities among others. (a) At least 65 per cent of the allocation from the Service Delivery Account must be budgeted for capital expenditure. (b) Expenditure on personal emoluments should not exceed 55 per cent of the total expenditure of the local authority. (c) From July, 2000, it is a mandatory requirement that all statutory charges incurred by the local authority shall have been paid within the year in which they are due. (d) The statement of actual receipts, expenditures, cash and bank balances up to 30th of June, 2006 must be submitted. (e) A statement of abstracts of accounts for the Financial Year 2005/2006 must be produced and submitted as required. In the event that a local authority fails to meet any of the above conditionalities, it attracts a penalty. Mr. Speaker, Sir, hon. Members are encouraged to acquaint themselves with the LATF annual reports which give detailed information on the financial revenue and expenditure, progress on service delivery and projects implementation among other areas. The LATF reports are distributed to this House and also published in the print media. With regard to the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP), in order to enhance citizen involvement in the affairs of local authorities, my Ministry, in 2001, introduced the concept of participatory planning through preparation of the LASDAP. This reform initiative is a process that accords a mechanism for interaction between the local authorities and their citizens or stakeholders on financial information, exchange and planning of projects and activities for implementation. In the past, there have been complaints from hon. Members of Parliament, and the public, that local authorities allocate small amounts of money to capital projects thus ending up with unviable and ineffective projects in terms of service delivery. My Ministry will no longer accept allocations that have no impact. I am in the process of making changes whereby local authorities 2478 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 1, 2006 will be required to ensure that 50 per cent of LATF's Service Delivery Account is allocated to infrastructural projects. In future, LATF will not be released to local authorities until they ascertain compliance. Mr. Speaker, Sir, at this juncture, I wish to enumerate some of the successful LATF projects in a sample of local authorities. I am doing this because many times there have been complaints that the money from the LATF has not been used to do any work that can be seen. These projects include: A livestock market in the Mandera Town Council; the rehabilitation of boreholes in the Samburu Town Council; construction of Chachangwani Health Centre in Molo Town Council; and expansion of street lighting in Kapsabet Municipal Council. These are projects worth emulating. However, some local authorities, we do accept, have not successfully implemented LATF projects. These include, the bus park project in Malaba Town Council; council offices and slaughterhouses in Vihiga County Council; and access roads to Jomvu Kuu and the repair of Mishomoroni Road in Mombasa Municipal Council. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the concept of community contracting for provision of infrastructural services has now been embraced with the main aim of creating employment opportunities at the local level while addressing the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation. My Ministry has been encouraging the application of this concept for works undertaken using LATF money as well us the Roads Maintenance Levy Fund. The Street Families Rehabilitation Programme has been allocated Kshs27 million. The issue of rehabilitation of street families is a matter the Government has been addressing since 2003. The allocation in the current Budget is Kshs27 million. The funds will be utilised on the following: Rehabilitation of Thunguma Academy and Nanyuki Children's Home; purchase of foodstuffs to support charitable homes and institutions; vocational training skills of rehabilitated youth; and re- integration of rehabilitated families in their homes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Africities Conference has been allocated Kshs150 million. In recognition of Nairobi as the regional economic hub in East Africa, the Africities Fourth Summit is scheduled to take place in Nairobi from the 18th to the 24th of September this year. The Africities Summit is a platform of political dialogue on decentralisation in Africa. It brings together the central Government, local Government, NGOs, the private sector, research and training institutions, bilateral and multilateral donor support agencies and so on. This summit has been organised every two years since 1998 by the Municipal Development Programme (MDP) in collaboration with the umbrella union of Local Government Associations in Africa. The Summit has been held in Abidjan, Windhoek and Yaounde. The theme of the Fourth Edition of the Africities Summit is: \"Building Local Coalitions for the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in African Local Governments\". Among its objectives, the Summit aims at providing a forum for a continental exchange of information and good practices between elected local Government officials, technical officials and local Government institutions. The event provides a golden opportunity for our country to market herself as an important tourist destination as well as the place of choice for prospective investors. Further to this, efforts are underway to restore the past glory of this great city in the sun. The budget earmarked for this Summit will cater for expenses on hospitality, including publicity, security, capacity building and so on. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Development Vote has been allocated Kshs1,305,788,374. The funds voted for the Development Vote in my Ministry will be utilised in the following projects and programmes: The Rural Poverty Reduction and Local Government Support Programme has been allocated Kshs498,685,163. The Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment August 1, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2479 Creation elaborates a three-pillar strategy to meet the Government's objectives over the medium- term, as outlined in the Budget Strategy paper of 2005. That includes enhancing equity, poverty reduction and improving governance. Poverty, systematically excludes a large portion of the population from full national and social participation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, 67 per cent of our people live in areas under the county councils. About 53 per cent of those people live in poverty. In line with the Governments' efforts to achieve poverty reduction and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as articulated in the Budget Strategy Paper of 2005, my Ministry is spearheading the implementation of pro-poor development programmes in local authorities through capacity building and poverty reduction. The above programme is being implemented with financial support from the European Union (EU). The programme will run for three years at a total cost of Euros21 million. The funds for the current financial year include the support of the Kenya Local Government Reform Programme and the Poverty Reduction Fund grants to be disbursed in the same period. The programme targets to support pro-poor development programmes in local authorities. The evaluation of submissions from the local authorities that responded to the request for proposals shows that a total of 38 local authorities qualified to receive poverty reduction funds. The list of local authorities that will benefit is available. A total of Kshs281 million poverty reduction grants will, therefore, be disbursed in the coming year. A second request for proposals will be launched later in the year, and another group of local authorities will benefit. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in addition to financing various projects in the selected local Government, the Poverty Reduction and Local Government Support Programme seeks to further strengthen institutions of governance through capacity building in the Ministry of Local Authorities. Secondly, primary school construction in poor urban areas has been allocated Kshs215 million. The project concerns the extension and rehabilitation of primary schools in the poor areas of Nairobi, the provision of adequate ancillary facilities, furniture and so on. That is to contribute to the achievement of the universal primary education in poor urban areas, particularly in Nairobi. The project activities include construction of classrooms, provision of adequate furniture and so on. The implementation of that project was supposed to have commenced during the last financial year. However, due to delayed procurement procedures, the project did not take off. The implementation is now on schedule and the project is being supported by the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the infrastructure sector has been allocated an amount of Kshs1,286,151,780. The Ministry has recognised the importance of roads in driving economic growth. Part of those funds will be utilised to increase the efficiency of urban roads infrastructure, and to build a sustainable road network maintenance capacity in local authorities. About 60 per cent of our GDP in this country comes from Nairobi. I, therefore, wish to thank the Minister for Finance for allocating 1 per cent of the Road Maintenance Levy Funds to the City of Nairobi. However, at the Ministry, we still think that, that is not adequate. The funds in that budget will be utilised to facilitate the continuation or completion of ongoing and new roads construction projects in urban centres. Mr. Speaker, Sir, apart from the City Council of Nairobi, my Ministry is currently undertaking improvement of roads in Meru, Murang'a, Nyeri and Embu, with the support of the Road Maintenance Levy. Other roads earmarked for rehabilitation include those in Mombasa, Kwale, and Kerugoya-Kutus, among others. In addition, a total of 96 local authorities, including all district headquarters, are accessing funding from the Road Maintenance Levy. In addition, the funds requested under that Head will be utilised to complete the ongoing construction of bus and"
}