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{
    "id": 467710,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/467710/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 197,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "embraced devolved governments. We are talking about the money that has already been allocated. As I said, we have no power to reject or amend it. I have not heard anyone criticizing the Senate for the failure or otherwise of this Bill. We have not been involved to determine how much, for example, a county assembly will get. I do not want to say that we failed in our duties as Senate. However, it cannot be said that a good job was done. We ought to have sat down together with the Transition Authority (TA) or the people who are involved and then determined the best way of allocating these funds. If you look at the Bill itself, you will see that we are in total confusion. We have an amount of Kshs198 billion appearing in the Bill. We also have Kshs210 billion appearing in the Bill. The third amount is Kshs258 billion. This shows that there is something wrong somewhere that we ought to have discovered and put right. However, that was not done. We are commanded by the provisions of the Constitution to pass it the way it is without any interrogation. This is because even if we were to interrogate it, we might not have answers to a lot of these questions. I hope in the next financial year, we shall be involved in determining how to allocate this money to the county governments. When you look at the formula, it shows clearly that the people who did it were not serious. For example, I border with Samburu and Baringo counties. I wonder what criteria were used in determining Baringo County is poorer than Laikipia or Samburu. These are the matters that should be looked at. There are some areas in a county that are not same. There are some areas like Laikipia and Baringo counties where rainfall is good and, therefore, good for agriculture. There are areas in Laikipia County which are drier than areas in Samburu or Baringo County. Therefore, when determining this kind of allocation, it is important to consider all the factors. As I said earlier, this Senate has no choice because we are required by the Constitution to do the needful. So, the Senate needs to devolve in every respect so that we are capable of telling people why we issued such an amount in a certain district. Right now, if we try to explain to the Governor, the county assembly members or the local people, we would have no answer because we do not know how it was determined. That is why there is a lot of confusion in this allocation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, management of conflict is another big problem in our counties. There have been conflicts all over because there are some counties where the governor’s nomination list was rejected by the county assembly members. That has delayed the issue of preparing budgets in many counties. Therefore, the Transition Authority (TA) should explain to our people how these figures were arrived at. Sometime ago in this House, I said that we can allocate billions of shillings to the counties, but have we created capacities within the county assembly? Do the members of the county assemblies and their speakers have capacity to oversight over the governors? Do governors themselves have capacity to prepare budgets for their counties? We need to spend a lot of money to empower the county government, so that they can determine and prepare their own budgets. The way things are going is that some members of the county assembly and even the governors think that there is unlimited money somewhere and it has to be distributed. There is no unlimited amount of money anywhere in the world. Money needs to be distributed according to needs. We must make sure that the budgets that have been crafted are capable of delivering services to the people of this country. The purpose of devolution was to make sure that people in counties enjoy more development and are more secure in terms of their lives due to the new Constitution. That The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}