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{
    "id": 469039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469039/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 70,
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    "content": "Expenditures be in the ratio of 70 to 30 per cent. At least 30 per cent of the revenue should be used for development purposes. What the Jubilee Government has proposed, is to provide for this at a ratio of 50 to 50 per cent. The balance between Recurrent and Development Expenditure is almost equal. This, again, is way above the required legal threshold of a ratio of 70 to 30 per cent. Mr. Speaker, Sir, thirdly, resources from the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) that were financing functions devolved to county governments have been included in the Division of Revenue Bill as well as the County Allocation of Revenue Bill. I want to clarify that we already know that there is a 2.5 per cent allocation towards the CDF under the new CDF Act. The Government has proposed another allocation, over and above what is allocated to the regular CDF as stipulated in the Act, at a level of 2.5 per cent. If you total the allocation to the CDF from the national Government, it comes to five per cent. Of course, hon. Senators note that there is ongoing debate between constitutional organs and the national Assembly on the possibility of channeling the entire CDF component through the county governments. The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) has already taken a position on this matter. As Government, we feel, subject to the approval of the relevant Houses of Parliament, that the entire CDF should be channeled through county governments. This is one point that the Chair of the CIC is totally correct on. The allocation in the CDF Act is made under Article 202 of the Constitution. That Article says that such conditional grants must be channeled through county governments. But that is something whose discussions are ongoing. However, over and above the regular 2.5 per cent to the CDF, the Jubilee Government is proposing an additional 2.5 per cent to be channeled through county governments. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I also wish to bring to the attention of this House that, in the past, there were a bit of discussions between the CRA on one hand and the national Treasury on the other. These discussions were misunderstood by many Kenyans and even the Legislature. That difference has now been harmonized and they are now working together. They have agreed on the contentious issues that were separating them. If hon. Senators recall, the Deputy President organised a joint discussion between the two organs and an agreement has been arrived at to that effect. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Bill contains figures that have been arrived at after a lot of consensus. We are also talking about allocations which are way above the minimum requirements of the Constitution, both in terms of the money that goes to counties and also in terms of the CDF allocations, as I have mentioned. Therefore, the question to ask is: “Does the total county allocation of Kshs210 billion meet the constitutional or legal requirements? Yes, it does, for three reasons. First, it should be noted that the proposed county equitable share of Kshs190 billion is 31.2 per cent of the most recent audited revenues approved by Parliament which is more than twice the constitutional minimum requirement of 15 per cent. Yes, this allocation meets the constitutional and legal requirements. The criteria with regard to the allocation of Kshs210 billion set out in Article 203(1) of the Constitution have been taken into account fully. I want to provide information that one of the issues that have brought a bit of understanding between the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and the national 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."
}