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{
    "id": 467528,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/467528/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 15,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Machage",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 179,
        "legal_name": "Wilfred Gisuka Machage",
        "slug": "wilfred-machage"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. We are deliberating on allocation of finances to the counties albeit in a low tone after the Constitution was deliberately not followed by our sister House. This is an anomaly that deserved to be looked at critically. Thank God the courts are there. I believe the courts will be able to give a very sober decision on the matter. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a duty to allocate funds to the counties. Unless we do that, counties will be grounded. A sum of Kshs198 billion, as indicated on the Order Paper, is what we are supposed to approve although the Senate Majority Leader keeps referring to Kshs210 billion. This is not on paper, but he says this will come as an amendment. Our desire, as a House, was to get Kshs258 billion to the counties. It is interesting that this was opposed by the very legislators who come from the grassroots, the hon. Members of Parliament. It is a shame that when they reach Nairobi, at the National Assembly, they forget the grassroots problems they have left back home. In a way, they want to support the Executive who have a different agenda. That money is not adequate to run county governments. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need, at least 40 per cent or thereabout of the total revenue of this country taken to the counties. What we have been given, although they are trying to convince us, is about 15 per cent of the total revenue. In fact, it is, indeed, about 14 per cent or so of the national revenue. They used the calculations from the figures of the Financial Year 2010/2011. If we have to interpret and look at the figures that are available for the Financial Year 2012/2013, that figure that has been allocated to the counties is below the constitutional threshold. The question is: What next? What will happen to that balance that is constitutionally due to county governments? This is a major question that needs to be answered. We cannot be cheated that, that was constitutional, that, that figure is above 15 per cent. It is less. We have our minds open to these blatant falsehoods. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even the distribution of this money is skewed with a column that was inserted to create additional revenue to some counties---"
}