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{
    "id": 455415,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/455415/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Njagagua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2336,
        "legal_name": "Charles Muriuki Njagagua",
        "slug": "charles-muriuki-njagagua"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this chance to contribute to this Motion. First of all, I wish to thank the Chairman for his able leadership. He has taken us through the meetings which have been long and tedious, but I believe they have all been for a worthwhile course. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I have been sitting here and, at some point, I was a bit confused. I thought somebody was insinuating that what we were doing was not right. I want to say it was insinuation because he never came straight to that point. We looked at the ceilings that had been provided by Treasury. We tried to fit within those ceilings. We met all the Chairpersons of Departmental Committees and all sector groups. It is on the basis of those meetings that we were able to allocate money where that money was actually required. It is, again, on that basis that we were able to deny – if I may use that word – some sectors money, which they did not actually deserve. I would like to reiterate that the Budget and Appropriations Committee is not a rubber-stamp for anybody. We shall give out money depending on those sectors that come to us, after we summon them. They have to come before us to defend the amount of money that they are allocated. It is worth noting that, as much as we need money to go to the governors in the counties, much of that money is lying idle at the Central Bank of Kenya. We are talking about money in excess of Kshs60 billion. It is unfortunate that we cannot recall that money. To the best of my recollection, funds that have been given to the counties are kind of ring-fenced because we cannot recall such money. If we were able to do that, we could easily recall it and give it to more deserving sectors. Hon. Deputy Speaker, on the issue of cash transfers and the safety nets for the aged and the vulnerable groups, it is unfortunate that we could not do more than we did. The reason is that what was before us was too little. However, we tried to allocate as much as we could, given the circumstances. For many of us, when we were seeking votes, we were all challenged by the issue of the vulnerable and the aged who need money all over this country. In as much as I support this Report, it is my wish that when we go to the Budget-making proper for the year 2014/2015, Treasury, in its wisdom, must allocate more money for the aged and the vulnerable groups. Hon. Deputy Speaker let me speak on the issue of the wage bill. We know that about 72 per cent of our national estimates go to settling the wage bill. There is no country in the world that can develop if a substantial amount of the money is being used on Recurrent Expenditure. As much as we are spending too much money, the Government must find ways and means of cutting down on the wage bill. I do not know how we are going to face it because I do not want to say that we need to retrench some 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."
}