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"id": 282917,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/282917/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. M’Mithiaru",
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"speaker": {
"id": 72,
"legal_name": "Ntoitha M'mithiaru",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me a chance to support the Budget Committee’s Report on the Budget Policy Statement for the Financial Year 2012/2013. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the spirit of the Budget Policy Statement is really to spell out priority areas that are intended to make the country pursue the required monetary policies and the overall micro economic policy. In doing so, the Budget Policy Statement gives an indication as to how the Budget Estimates will look like, taking into account the sectoral areas and the sectoral ceilings to ensure that the required priority areas have been taken care of. From the Budget Policy Statement, we have seen that there are a number of priority areas which have not garnered the required attention. One of these is the area of water. Water is life. We know that water is a commodity whose availability is really wanting in most parts of Kenya. In particular, in Igembe North Constituency, water is our major problem. We do not have any rivers or water springs. We rely heavily on piped water from very far. When the rains are not there, you find that accessing water is a big hustle. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we would like the Budget to take this sector into account by having funds deliberately put aside for it, just as we have seen the Government come up with programmes for the development of the road infrastructure and for rural electrification. We also want to see that kind of concern within the water sector, so that all Kenyans can have adequate water. On the same note, without repeating what the previous speaker talked about, in order for us to mitigate degradation of our environment, aforestation must be provided for adequately. Measures should be put in place to ensure that Kenya conserves her environment properly, a point which brings us back to what I said about water. That is not all. Almost every other year we import food in Kenya. The Government has not put in place adequate programmes to ensure that Kenya fully sustains itself in terms of food security. The climate and the soils are good. We understood the other day that within three or four years the Government of Malawi was able to roll out programmes and was able to sustain its population in terms of food. We can do the same in Kenya but it is only that the Government has not put in place adequate programmes for this. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other priority area is health. We know that a healthy nation is also a working nation. A nation that is inadequate in terms of health provisions will always be limping. I know Members of Parliament, through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), have put up many health facilities and the Government knows that. However, most of them have not even been mainstreamed into the health sector of this country in terms of staff provision, the requisite medicine and an all-health instrument to ensure that, at least, those facilities are not in vain and that they are able to serve the communities that the CDF funds were channeled to. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, from issues discussed in the Budget Policy Statement, we understand that Kenya is steering off from donor-supported budgets to a budget that is being provided for from resources garnered from within the country. I think this is really a credit, especially to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), whose collections are now almost gearing towards Kshs1 trillion. I am sure that one must be properly promoted now. At the same time, we also thank the Government which has ensured that this programme has actually realized the results in that now we are relying very little in terms of donor funds to finance our Budget. The other bit on the Budget Policy Statement is that although it dealt little on the devolved funds, on the CDF, it was not clear how they want to treat it. If I may quote a World Bank report where they were crediting Kenya for having two important innovations which are almost changing the way the world economy is administered. One of them they say is MPESA. The World Bank itself was actually jittery about it and they were almost saying that Kenya was going to the ruins if it passed that route. Now they are giving Kenya us credit for the success of MPESA. The other one is that they talked about the CDF and said that Members of Parliament were misusing these funds. However, the latest report says that through the CDF and that micro-managing at that level has actually lifted Kenya. They can see the impact on the ground and the rural Kenya is now having a face of development. On that token, even now on the devolved funds, the CDF should be properly provided for as a conditional grant. Let it pass through the county governments and go directly to the constituency to ensure that all the work that has been started through that initiative or the gains are not negated or reversed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, again, on that, there is an issue on which even Members of Parliament have talked. We even had a report on the weakening of the shilling. All these monetary policies we are talking about; if we do not maintain a strong Kenya shilling and we revert to where we were in November or December, the amount of money we are going to use in terms of repayment and interest on the external loans is going to be too huge; it will interfere with the development programmes of the Government. The other thing is for the Government and the monetary authority to ensure that the Kenya shilling is strengthened both within Kenya and abroad. Lastly, on the issue of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), I know even my colleagues in Parliament have said that the formula used by the CRA may not be the best. However, what I know is that the CRA wants to be equitable. This is because if it is equality, they do not even need a formula. They would just take the number of counties or constituencies and divide the amount of money available with that so as to get the results. I think this is where we should get real issues. If we say that a county that has two constituencies and a county that has seven, eight or nine constituencies should share the cake equally, that will be terribly inequitable and cannot be allowed. If there is equity, then why do you not even take constituencies and then divide the funds the way we divide the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) funds? This will still be the same figures that the CRA are advocating for. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am saying that rather than us shouting without coming to grips with the real issue at hand, let us look at the formula and ensure that it is properly equitable, even if this means giving the population a lesser figure. Let us ensure that everything is properly equitable. Lastly, on the Government side, we are now approaching June and we know for sure that there are Ministries and sectors that have not utilized all the funds, as it were. Since it is towards the end of the financial year, priorities, or projects, are forgotten and Ministries are now in a hurry to ensure that they spend all the funds, so that come the end of June, all the funds are properly accounted for and done. We would urge the Government and the Treasury at this time of the year to ensure that if there are any new projects started, the proper process is followed, and the normal procurement requirements are in place; we should not have things done in a hurry and at the end of the day we have shoddy jobs. We should also not ignore priority projects which the funds would have financed if the initiative was taken early enough in the year. With those few remarks, I support."
}