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{
    "id": 385453,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/385453/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 60,
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    "content": "The third reason is that we do not know how much money is involved even as we suggest that these debts be taken over. I do not know how much is owed by Mandera County, Kakamega County or the City Council of Nairobi. We are going to give those guys a blank cheque. The moment you approve this Motion my worry is that tomorrow we will have those figures inflated, many pending bills and invoices in dozens which will lead to frustrations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are better ways of handling this. The concern is to give adequate resources to the county governments. This is because county governments like any other government will have to borrow. They are allowed in the Constitution to borrow. So, in future, we will have a situation where the county governments have to balance their budgets by borrowing. That will come. We cannot always be running back. What we need to do is what we are required constitutionally to ensure that the revenue allocation under Article 202 of the Constitution that puts the minimum at 15 per cent can be adjusted. We have the power to adjust that figure to 30 per cent, 40 per cent or 50 per cent to give enough resources to the counties to pay all their obligations, including not only their recurrent expenditures, but also development expenditure and payment of debts. I am saying that because if we push these debts to the national government, we will have a situation where today the national public debt is Kshs1.8 trillion. According to the estimates by Treasury, that figure will go up to Kshs2 trillion. In the last few years, this Government has been on an expansionist policy, spending more than they can generate. If you look at this year’s estimates, the public expenditure is Kshs1.63 trillion yet the total revenue that the Government expects to generate in the next financial year is only Kshs723 billion. In the Budget that we are going to look at in the next few weeks, the Government intends to borrow not less than Kshs596 billion just to cover the operations of this country. If we allow this, then all the debts that are in this country, including all the 175 local authorities, we are just going to make the situation worse. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have an obligation to ensure that adequate resources are actually given to the county governments. I think that is a better way; that is, to empower the Governors so that they can clear their liabilities rather than pushing the matter to the national government. We even do not know how much it is and this will also create opportunities for rent seeking behaviour and so on. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other point that I want to put across is that the national government has external debts. That has been taken over by the local authorities. In this year’s financial estimates, there are about Kshs45 billion external debts guaranteed by the national government for local authorities among other institutions. This does not include the billions that have been mentioned or owed by suppliers to the local authorities. Therefore, my argument is that it is our responsibility to nurture the county governments to be able to operate like government so that they can meet their obligations, generate revenue, take loans, get grants and be able to pay those liabilities by ensuring that their fiscal capacity is enhanced. One of the criteria to be used by the revenue sharing formulae is fiscal capacity. That is something that we expect to change in the next few months when we review it. My argument is; I do not think this Motion, after looking at it critically is appropriate."
}