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"speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
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"content": "Let me just start by thanking the Mediation Committee, led by our Chairman, hon. Musyimi. Looking at this report, I know where our chairman was coming from. As the Committee on Budge and Appropriations, we had said no to this proposal. I see a situation where our Chairman was put between a hard place and a rock. He had earlier said no and this is a situation where he must save this country. In the spirit of saving our country, our Chairman, hon. Mbadi and hon. Emaase went ahead and accepted to some of these proposals. So, in the same spirit, I want to support this report. I want to plead with this House to adopt this report. Even as I support this report, there are a number of lessons learnt, which we need to take forward. Looking at this report, the Mediation Committee has only given the Level 5 hospitals Kshs1.87 billion. The Budget and Appropriations Committee had earlier given the same Level 5 hospitals Kshs3.74 billion. So, even as we discuss this report, there is a shortage to the same hospitals of Kshs1.87 billion. This report does not indicate whether the money which has gone to the counties will be provided for the Level 5 hospitals because this is still a general figure. The national Government has gone that extra mile to provide additional Kshs1.87 billion. The county governments, through the Senate, would have also agreed to have a conditional grant to the same hospitals of the same amount, so that the earlier Kshs3.74 billion is there for the Level 5 hospitals. In short, we are saying that we should leave the issue of Kshs1.7 billion at the county level to the governors. My worry is that I do not see that money being provided for Level 5 hospitals. This means that the governors, who are in charge of the counties where the Level 5 Hospitals are, will have to provide more resources from their equal allocation. It is obvious that we are going to be unfair to those counties. The second lesson which we need to learn from this exercise is that in future, as the Committee on Budget and Appropriations under the chairmanship of hon. Musyimi, we must be firm in our decisions. All this happened as a result of us allowing some consultations which took place outside the Committee sessions. Those consultations brought the problem that we are in. Now, because we need to save the country, we will accept to go this way but in future, we need to be firm, as a Committee, in whatever decision that we make. We have a technical team which advises the Budget and Appropriations Committee. We rely on that information to make our decisions. The third lesson that is learnt is that as a House, we have no choice but to pass this report. As I speak, county governments have prepared their budgets, which have been presented to the county assemblies. Some of these budgets have been forwarded to the Controller of Budget. This is all despite the fact that we do not have a Division of Revenue Act and a County Allocation of Revenue Act, which are key documents. Article 224 of the Constitution clearly states that the county governments will only prepare their budgets after these two Acts are approved, one by the National Assembly and the other one by the county assemblies. So, you can see the kind of illegality which is taking place as a result of what we are doing. So, even as we move forward, it is important that we realize that the Constitution is very clear on how the Budget should be prepared. We humbly request that we adhere to the timelines and the provisions of the Constitution, so that the budget making process does not just become another activity of this House. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}