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    "id": 380941,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380941/?format=api",
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    "content": "is both the National Assembly and the Senate. That is why it is very sad that we went through the process that we went through, and we are now in court. It is also important to note that we and our friends and brothers in the National Assembly have not demonstrated the kind of patriotism that looks at this House, the National Assembly and the county governments as entities that are all providing leadership as Parliament; whether in terms of checks and balances or guidance. Therefore, it is very unfortunate that we are here discussing a Bill that will ultimately tell us that Kshs210 billion is going to counties. If you read this Bill, there is the question of conditional grants and conditional allocations to the counties in section five which is very important. It is important that we must ensure that counties receive resources that are necessary to ensure that services that were ongoing are ongoing. But the question I am asking myself, because when officials from Treasury came to our Committee of Devolved Government and the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs, at that time when we were discussing the Division of Revenue Bill, which was basically the report which was tabled in this House; one of the things they said was: “ The reason we are giving conditional grants to Nyeri County is for them to run what was called Nyeri Provincial Hospital.” But the question I am asking myself is; then why give them the money as conditional grants? If the function is for Nyeri County, then you give the money for them to run the hospital. It has nothing to do with being called “conditional grants” because anything that is conditional means that, at some point, it will be taken away. It means that they are not entitled to it. It cannot be conditional grants when the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution has allocated that function to that level of government. It can only be, therefore, pointing to another problem. That is the problem of functional analysis, the problem of costing of functions and the problem of unbundling of functions. I want to address each one of them. First of all, Madam Temporary Speaker, Paragraph 15(1) of the Sixth Schedule of Constitution says:- “Parliament shall, by legislation, make provision for the phased transfer, over a period of not more than three years from the date of the first election of county assemblies, from the national government to county governments, of the functions assigned to them under Article 185.” Then Section 15(2) says:- “The legislation referred to in subsection (1) shall— (a) provide for the way in which the national government shall— (i) facilitate the devolution of power; (ii) assist county governments in building their capacity to govern effectively and provide the services for which they are responsible; and 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."
}