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    "id": 294243,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/294243/?format=api",
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    "content": "My final contribution will be on two areas. Under Section 38(2) “The nature of information that is to be presented in the budget estimates and the form of its presentation shall be prescribed in regulations and the regulations shall be tabled in Parliament for approval”. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very clear in the Constitution under Article 221(2)(b) that there must be a legislation to prescribe the form and the content of the budget estimates. This is a requirement that is expressly stated in the Constitution. You cannot do it through rules and regulations as the Treasury is proposing in this Bill. The other interesting one is Subclause 39(2) that says, “Before the National Assembly considers the estimates of revenue and expenditure, the relevant Committee of the National Assembly shall discuss and review the estimates and make recommendations to the National Assembly, taking into account the views of the Cabinet Secretary on the proposed recommendations”. If you look at the wording of the Constitution, where “Cabinet Secretary” is put there was “public”. Why is the Treasury replacing “public” with “Cabinet Secretary?” This is a clear attempt to make the Cabinet Secretary’s voice in budget making process more important than even the public’s participation. It goes on to say “The National Assembly may amend the budget estimates of the national government only in accordance with the Division of Revenue Act and the resolutions adopted with regard to the Budget Policy Statement---”. Then in (b) it talks of a proposed reduction in expenditure. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is clearly limiting the powers of Parliament in legislation. You cannot limit the powers of Parliament in terms of legislating, and then you give a condition that the views of the Cabinet Secretary must be taken into consideration by the Budget Committee. What you are telling Kenyans is that what they did when they voted for this new Constitution to take powers of the past from the Treasury to the people through Parliament--- You are taking it away and giving it back to the Cabinet Secretary by wording this Bill in a way that is going to take away the powers of Parliament of approving the Budget. I want to conclude by saying the following; first, as Parliament what we need to give much attention to is how faithful this Bill is to the Constitution. I have just cited a few cases; more will come through various proposed amendments. Secondly, is to find out how this Bill respects devolution. I have also mentioned very clearly and categorically that once the Constitution has stated that a certain amount must go to the counties, that amount must go to the counties. There should be no conditions as to whether there is cash flow or not. If we give these powers to the Cabinet Secretary you start hearing excuses like “We did not have enough cash and so we delayed disbursement to the counties”. In this way you will kill the counties because the only way to kill counties is to starve them of resources. Once you starve the counties of resources the counties will come down tumbling; they will collapse. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a House we must make sure that we make corrections in this Bill. We must move amendments to this Bill to stop the Treasury from giving the Cabinet Secretary powers that were actually taken away by the Constitution. With those few remarks, I support."
}