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{
    "id": 380979,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380979/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 295,
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    "content": "wisdom can be exercised by this Senate in debating and allocating funds through this Bill because we represent the aspirations of the people in the counties. As a result of that, we shall be showing that, indeed, we are the mothers and fathers of our baby which we are nurturing, which is devolution. Madam Temporary Speaker, I rise because we want to support this Bill and because we do not want to have disruption of services in the counties. As we support the allocation of revenue through this Bill, I do hope that the money we are allocating will not be misused. We hope that it will be spent by the county governments in ensuring that there is delivery of services, especially in agriculture and in county health services. We hope that this money shall ensure that there is good infrastructure that we so dearly need in our counties. We know that the state of our roads in the counties is in deplorable conditions. We hope that there will be proper improvement of programmes that deal with early childhood learning. We do also hope that there will be programmes that will deal with exploitation and exploration of natural resources. Madam Temporary Speaker, before I sit down, I do hope that the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs will look at column “d,” which is conditional allocations; I do not understand this column. I do not understand, for example, why my county, Kisii, is being allocated only Kshs1 billion while Kisumu is being given Kshs1.9 billion and Nyeri County is being given Kshs3.6 billion. I really hope that the Committee will explain when it eventually brings its report to us for adoption. We would like to know the basis of these allocations. Madam Temporary Speaker, I would also want to understand why the marginalized communities and counties, for example, Tana River, Wajir and West Pokot counties, have been given very little; may be under Kshs500,00. I do hope that this column “d” is not an allocation of funds that will be given on the basis that there will be other hidden budgets. This Government has been in the habit of putting hidden budgets in their allocations which will only go to support issues that are political. Therefore, it will be very prudent that we know what the Kshs43.9 billion on the additional conditional allocations is being given for. I realize it was not even approved by the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA). Madam Temporary Speaker, as I sit down, finally, I would like to talk about an issue that Sen. Kuti talked about. Indeed, it is true that, as we load these functions, we look at the loading of functions and the money that is being given. We do not load services that we are not very sure that the county governments are in a position to carry them out. If you recall, we told this Jubilee Government that it was not yet time in this country, because we did not have sufficient capacity in implementing maternal health care. Today, if you visit the hospitals, they are in a deplorable condition. Many mothers are lying outside; some are delivering by the gates. I even read somewhere in the newspapers where mothers are not able to deliver. Some are even losing their babies as a result---"
}