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{
    "id": 469170,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469170/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
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    "content": "the counties. Looking at the engagements that we have had in this House since the start of the first Session, I think that we are being presented with the real opportunity for us to show our protectiveness towards the county governments by ensuring that the county governments have the required resources. Madam Temporary Speaker, looking at the Bill, I want to address a few issues that arise. One, that we need to have a proper understanding and an agreement as a House that we have two Funds created under this Bill; the first one is the aspect of the Equalisation Fund. If you look at Article 204 of the Constitution of Kenya, the Equalisation Fund is a separate fund from the equitable share of revenue being directed or channeled to the county governments. So, I find that in this Bill, we have a problem because the Bill seems to suggest that the Equalisation Fund is part of the revenue that the national Government is allocating to the county governments. We need to ensure that the Equalisation Fund is separate because if you look at the Constitution, that is coming as a separate fund. So, we need to separate the Equalisation Fund from other resources. The other issue being raised under this Bill, Madam Temporary Speaker, is the conditional allocation. I want to agree with my colleagues that the conditional allocation under this Bill need not appear as part of the resources that are going to the county governments. Those resources should be shouldered by the national revenue so that we do not need to reflect and lie to ourselves that we have given county governments Kshs210 billion while actually, we are giving them Kshs190 billion. I know that at an appropriate time, as mentioned by my colleagues, we will introduce an amendment to this Bill to enable us to raise those resources beyond Kshs210 billion that the Bill has provided. However, Madam Temporary Speaker, I think I want to raise an issue regarding the costing of functions. If you look at the Division of Revenue Bill, it suggests that there is already some costing which was done by the national Treasury. We need to ask ourselves; we already have the Transitional Authority whose legal mandate was to look into this particular issue to ensure that we are able to cost the functions. If we are unable to have the proper costing of functions, we will be in a more difficult position because we may be talking about funds, looking at Kshs210 billion and thinking that these are resources that can facilitate us to run county governments, while actually, this is what we need for the entire running cost of county governments. So, we must ask ourselves: How much is it going to cost us to run the various functions of county governments?"
}