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    "id": 357991,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/357991/?format=api",
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    "content": "important job for a Member of Parliament in the Eleventh Parliament - revenue allocation. As other hon. Members have said, some of us came to this House on the basis of devolution; fighting and defending the spirit of devolution. Hon. Deputy Speaker, when you look at this document, we have risks. Besides, all of us have domestic problems about the formation of committees and trying to find out whether committees are in place or not. It takes two to tango. I do not think it would be fair now to start engaging in blame game when we have a job before us of defending, protecting and planning on how Kenyans will get service at the grassroots. Hon. Deputy Speaker, when you look at this document, the urgency of Parliament to scrutinize it, which can only happen at the committee, cannot be over-emphasized. When you look at this document, I have a feeling that it is a “cut and paste”. I say that because when you talk about the money going to the counties, conditional release has been put there of Kshs43 billion. I propose that because of the problem of start-up - that is because county governments are starting up in Kenya - we increase the allocation by first saying: “Both Kshs154 billion and Kshs43 billion move together in one batch.” As you are aware, all counties are struggling to stand up. That is one proposal in the amendment I am going to propose. That, instead of talking of “conditional allocation” we say: “Because of the urgency of getting the counties to stand up, we amalgamate this and say Kshs154 billion plus Kshs43 billion be a direct allocation.” Two, when you go to the allocation in relation to Article 203, I also find it very interesting that despite the feeling that most commissions have done their job, the allocation for the recurrent estimates is going up by about 50 per cent. Parliament, which in my understanding is the National Assembly and the Senate with membership that has gone up from 210 to over 400 Members, has increased responsibilities and expectation from Kenyans. The allocation goes up by a mere Kshs1.5 billion. Unless there is a conspiracy to kill Parliament, in which case you kill the oversight body which will, despite the feelings of the “constituency of face book” and the civil society, be the only body that Kenyans will look up to, to point out the problems that arise from the “servants” --- By “servants” I mean the three arms of Government; the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the other issue that I want to put on the table is with regard to Teachers Service Commission (TSC). We all know - at least, from my constituency and my county - that the teacher-student ratio is extremely poor in the rural areas. The poor performance is as a result of not having enough teaching staff to baby-sit our children to be great citizens. I propose that we examine and re-evaluate the allocation to the Ministry of Education so that it can hire more teachers. That is because in the rural areas, there is a big problem. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have problems in our hospitals. Those problems have been mentioned and highlighted before. They entail empowering the health sector in the counties. We would like to see our people who are dying of lifestyle diseases being assisted. The problem of cancer has not been given consideration in terms of revenue allocation. Cancer, diabetes, hypertension and HIV/AIDS pose a serious problem in Kenya. Cancer is a serious problem but when you look at what has been allocated for the counties, it is a drop in the lake. I am proposing that we urgently increase it because, unless you have a healthy population, you cannot have economic development. I am proposing that we increase the allocation to the health sector to the counties. The overriding factor is that you can only get meaningful development at the counties. So, devolution is not an option. It is a must. My fear here is that when we say that we are going to have competing interests between the national Government and the county governments, I find"
}