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{
    "id": 334027,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/334027/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 181,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am giving a framework. You will now have to ask the relevant Ministers, but I am telling the hon. Member that the instructions have come from my office to those particular Ministers. I do not work in the Ministries. I give instructions and tell them that this is the time limit within which you need to do it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Member for Emuhaya is concerned about the fate of the employees of the local authorities. Let me tell him that the devolved system of government will actually take over from the local authorities. So, it is assumed that the staff of the local authorities will be absorbed by the incoming county governments. That is why there is no special provision that has been made regarding their fate. With regard to how the revenue will be shared, these are governments themselves. In other words, the devolved systems are governments themselves. It is not the responsibility of the Central Government to prepare the budgets for the devolved governments. Each and every devolved government will have its own budget prepared, discussed by its own assembly and approved. That is where they will deal with the allocations, for example, how much they will use for development and how much they will use for recurrent purposes. So, we do not want, at that level, to micromanage the devolved units, otherwise, it will just be an extension of the Central Government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, hon. Mbau was concerned about how the quarter will be used. The quarter comes to about Kshs203 billion. This is what is available to the county governments for the last quarter of this financial year. That is on the basis of 33 per cent of the total sharable revenue that is raised by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). That is why it was necessary for this House to pass the Bill on sharing of that revenue. Now that the formula is out, the Commission on Revenue Allocation has already worked out how much each and every county government will receive in that quarter. For example, a county like Isiolo will receive about Kshs2.3 billion while Tana River County will receive Kshs3.1 billion and so on and so forth. I have already said that before the county governments come into place, the budgeting will be done by the Ministry of Local Government, which is in charge of devolution, until the new national Government and county governments come into place. The county governments will then be in a position to prepare their own budgets. Now, hon. Prof. Kaloki and hon. Amina Abdalla have come back to the issue of the chiefs. Yes, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the issues that are being raised are issues that have been on the table for a long time. You remember when we were at the Bomas of Kenya during the debates for the new Constitution, the issue of devolution and decentralisation was very key and central. In fact, it is one of the issues over which there was no agreement. That is the reason why the Bomas Draft as originally proposed was never approved. There were those who were insisting on the retention of the centralized system of Government and there were those who wanted a proper devolved system of Government."
}