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{
    "id": 469108,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469108/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Khaniri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 171,
        "legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
        "slug": "george-khaniri"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Indeed, I want to confirm to you that the figure that I am mentioning is contained in the Bill that came from the National Assembly. In fact, it is not Kshs80 billion but Kshs83.5 billion. A whopping Kshs83.5 billion! With regard to the point of order raised by Sen. Haji, you will agree with me, it is a point of argument. I am expressing my opinion that for the national government with this kind of budget, it is incumbent upon the NIS to ensure that Kenyans get value for their money. We cannot be budgeting Kshs83.5 billion and yet NIS could not detect what happened in Tana River, Baragoi, Busia and Bungoma, just to cite but a few examples. Therefore, I am saying that this money could be utilized in a better way. We can cut on this Budget to ensure that we are adequately funding our county governments. I also want to comment on the Equalisation Fund. I know there is that provision of the Equalisation Fund for the marginalized counties but some of us are still questioning how the marginalized counties have been identified. We would like to know the criteria that was used to come up with the 14 counties which are going to benefit from the Kshs44 billion that was set aside as the Equalisation Fund. It has to be above board. Some of us come from counties that we feel are marginalized. We feel that we need to get a share of this particular resource but we do not appear anywhere near there. If anything, I would propose that this Fund be increased so that it can accommodate more counties than the 14 counties which they did this year. I want to agree with my colleagues who spoke earlier that, yes, the counties have not developed capacity in terms of capacity for budgeting, capacity to absorb even these resources that we are giving them, capacity to discharge their responsibilities and so forth. I want to propose that in the next financial year, it is important that we enhance the portion of the Budget that will go to the counties. At the Committee stage, I am going to be moving an amendment to increase this amount from Kshs220 billion that we have been allocated to Kshs248 billion, and I will give my justification for 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."
}