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"id": 455359,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
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"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
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"content": "department that deals with accounting for donor funds at the Treasury. I think this is something that Treasury needs to take up and give capacity to that department. Hon. Speaker, there is something that has also come out with regard to costing of functions. I think we have talked about county governments. County governments should not be given money arbitrarily. We need to cost the functions to county governments, so that every Kenyan knows very well what the amount that is sent to the county is supposed to do. The reason why we have to budget again for Rural Electrification Authority (REA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) is because the budget was not un-bundled to show exactly what the Kshs210 billion that we sent to the counties was supposed to do. That is the reason why, today, we have about Kshs60 billion in our County Revenue Fund Account. That will have a negative economic effect because the amounts were meant to stimulate economic growth. But we are not going to stimulate economic growth by having large sums of money lying at the Central Bank and yet, they are supposed to be used in the counties to spur economic growth in this country, so that we can realize the ordinary revenue projections of over Kshs900 billion that we intend to achieve. That is why you find that every time revenue is reported, there is always under-collection of revenue. It is because some amounts that we have budgeted to spur economic growth are not spent in developing the economy and, hence, the shortfall. Hon. Speaker, there is a proposal in the Supplementary Budget that I am so passionate about - and hon. (Prof.) Nyikal has talked about it - that is the cash transfer to the elderly. In the Tenth Parliament, in 2011, I moved a Motion where I was asking this country to think seriously and implement Article 57 of the Constitution; to think seriously and give cash transfers to the elderly. Those are people who cannot produce in this country but, when they had the energy and the strength, they were able to contribute to the economic development of this country. In this country, when we did a Census in 2009, we had 1,332,272 Kenyans who were 65 years and above. I did my simple calculation and realized that 888,000 of those people probably fall in the bracket of those elderly Kenyans who need to be given cash assistance. Some, I assumed, could be getting pensions elsewhere. That number, if you multiply by Kshs2,000 per month for 12 months, you will have about Kshs21 billion. We need to think seriously, as a country: How do we contribute; how do we help the elderly to live in dignity and respect as contemplated under Article 57 (3) of the Constitution? Hon. Speaker, the Constitution puts responsibility on the State to ensure that the elderly also participate in economic affairs of this country. It gives the responsibility to the State to ensure that we help the elderly. The State should help the elderly to pursue their personal development. That is guaranteed in the Constitution. Finally, the provision of care and assistance is the responsibility of the families and the State. They share that responsibility. Giving more money to the Ministry that is responsible to give cash transfers to the elderly is timely, but it is not sufficient. Right now, constituencies that have pilot programmes like mine, have one location. I have nine locations and only one--- Hon. Speaker, my time is up, but I want to say my last point. Sometimes, we need to be very open about the Budget. We need to be open - and those are the words I am The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}