Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 380871,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380871/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 187,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "If you look at Column “D”, the conditional allocations, you will find that the counties that are already marginalized are being further marginalized by these allocations. Madam Temporary Speaker, let me start with the counties in North Eastern Province. You will find that the counties in North Eastern Province combined, under that column, will only have Kshs1.3 billion. Look at the three counties in Lower Eastern. They also have Kshs1.5 billion. Look at some other counties in the Central region. They have been allocated Kshs12.5 billion. I have an issue with this allocation. The Senate Majority Leader said clearly that the idea of devolution is to equalize or provide equitable distribution of resources, but some counties which have already been marginalized are being marginalized further by this particular Column “D” in allocating the resources. My comfort, perhaps, is that this is going to be a one-off allocation and in future, this Column “D” will not be there anymore. I say this because if you look at the services that those funds are supposed to provide, they deal with things like hospitals which are lacking in the already marginalized counties. My issue is that the history of marginalized counties is being carried forward through these allocations, when in fact the idea of us being here is to provide equitable distribution of resources. Madam Temporary Speaker, I have also an issue with the Equalisation Fund. In May this year, I raised the issue of the Equalisation Fund and these matters were referred to the joint Chairs of the Committee on Devolution and Committee on Finance. The idea of devolution is very clear. It was meant to provide funds to the marginalized counties, to bring them at a certain level with the already advanced counties. The Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) went ahead and identified 21 counties as marginalized and, therefore, qualified to benefit from the Equalisation Fund. The same Commission went ahead, against the Constitution, because the Constitution says that the Fund shall be distributed to marginalized counties - The Commission went ahead and identified 21 counties to benefit from this Fund. But, again, it went ahead to slash this figure of 21 counties and came up with 14 counties. This is against the Constitution because it does not say “some marginalized counties.” The marginalized counties were identified are 21 and, therefore, the Commission cannot go ahead and use other criteria to reduce the marginalized counties to 14. I say this because Kitui County was actually number 15 in The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}