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{
    "id": 364496,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/364496/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, Sir, Budget-making process is give and take. It is a consensus kind of process. So, once the National Assembly was given these figures, we were persuaded that for the first year the capacity is still lacking when the counties are setting up structures and that there is need to allocate them money but next year we will not tell them “because you failed to absorb, we are reducing your budget”. In fact, it is in the interest of the counties not to ask for too much in the first year. I am speaking this with authority as an expert in finance. I would rather ask the governors to listen to me. In fact, giving them more money is like committing suicide. What the governors should do now with the Senate together with the Treasury is to embark on a rigorous exercise of costing the functions so that we can know how much it costs to run our 47 counties. If it is Kshs300 billion, this House has a duty and obligation to give out that money. I do not think that we, as the National Assembly, are against devolution. If there are some of us who are against devolution then they are few. Many of us want to support devolution but we do not want to give out money that may probably be excess and we will reduce next year but is fundamental. Finally, and which is also fundamental, I will now ask my colleagues, not only in the Senate, but even the county assembly representatives to take interest in the budget of various counties. Looking at those budget proposals, they do not look like budgets. How can a county budget be Kshs21 billion and with an income of only Kshs5 billion? A budget must balance; you have to show that this is what we intend to spend and out of it we are going to get this revenue and in the event that we are going to fail, we will get the rest from external or domestic borrowing. But you cannot give a hanging budget. It does not make sense. So, with regard to our counties, I think we need to give them capacity on how to prepare the budget. We should not look at them and think that they are independent institutions there. I think we need to come in and especially the Senate should look at the budgets of the counties and see if they make sense."
}