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{
    "id": 380947,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380947/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "nurses. The illusion being created here is that all the functions have been transferred to the county government. They can now think about how to pay doctors and nurses without assessing the competences of these counties. So, as much as this Bill is very important, it does not solve the confusion that is there in terms of the process. Worse still is about the reports we hear that there is no capacity in the Transition Authority (TA). If there are no resources being given to TA to do costing, allocation and unbundling of functions, then how shall we unlock this confusion? How shall we solve this problem and yet, we are in the process of starting the next financial year’s budget? It is important that these issues are addressed and the TA is given the necessary resources to do its work. Next year, we want to have a neat document that has a schedule and clear costing of functions. Treasury told us in the Committee when we were looking at the Division of Revenue Bill that what they meant by costing of functions was historical costing of functions. They went to Elgeyo-Marakwet County or Marakwet East Constituency and asked themselves how many doctors or engineers were there and how much they were being paid. But in Article 174, devolution was supposed to bring proper development. The reason we went for devolution is because of marginalization. If you tell me that we will use historical costing, that is, whatever money was in Elgeyo-Marakwet we keep it that way, we are actually not doing devolution at all, but maintaining. No wonder in some counties like Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and others, the resources they get might end up just making the governors to be payroll masters because we did not do costing of functions. We did not do unbundling of functions. We did not transfer these functions based on capacity understanding. When we say these things, it is because we want to help the nation move forward. Therefore, this Bill is good for the time being in order to give the counties the illusion that they have a lot of money, but actually they do not have. This money is very little. Look at Elgeyo-Marakwet County, you are giving us a total of Kshs2.6 billion. We only have control over Kshs1.9 billion, but this county does not have tarmacked roads. We only have one or two roads connecting us to another county. If you want to connect the county to the rest of the markets, there are no good roads. If you go to our neighbours Pokot, our connection to that county is terrible. If you go to our other neighbours on the other side, Baringo County, we are unable to connect and do trade. But if we want to do development, this kind of money, is just giving the governor the illusion that he has money and to look good, but does not lead to proper devolution or proper development. Madam Temporary Speaker, I proposed this in our Committee of Devolved Government that, perhaps, this House, the Committee on Finance and other Committees interested to do this work and working with the Clerk, we engage a consultant and look for development partners who are willing. Some of them have expressed interest to our Committee to do proper costing of functions. In the meantime, when the national government is telling us that this is the only amount good for the counties, the Senate in its capacity should be able to assist counties, will table a proper researched document that 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."
}