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{
    "id": 477319,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/477319/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2559,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Muriuki Ngare",
        "slug": "stephen-muriuki-ngare"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill. However, my support is with a fairly heavy heart because we have been called to divide money. Looking back at the Division of Revenue Bill that we passed sometime back, there was an indication that some negotiation had taken place. The debate that took place in the Senate did not go down well. The end result is that last year’s Division of Revenue Bill. In last year’s Division of Revenue Bill, the amount of money that was proposed to go to counties was Kshs210 billion. When the Senate sat in its relevant Committees, it identified counties which would not run their affairs with the resulting amount if we were to pass the Kshs210 billion. That is how the Senate ended up identifying a total of Kshs28 billion over and above the Kshs210 billion. More important is that there were many counties which did not have a shortfall because they had no facilities to run. They had no hospitals or markets to run. They had no water services to run. A case in point is the county I represent of Nyandarua. We did not have a shortfall because we do not even have a Level 4 Hospital never mind a Level 5 Hospital. We did not have a municipality with a water supply company. The end result was that the year ended with the Kshs3.15 billion that my county got without any new thing being built in the county. We do not have any new health facility or even markets. We do not have even headquarters. This is because the amount of money we are dividing is very little. This year, we were expecting that the situation would be revised so that the amount going to the counties is Kshs260 billion or above. I am aware that there was a move to increase the amount to Kshs279 billion which did not work. However, all of this was because in good faith, the Senate thought that a pre-negotiation had taken place before. A county like Nyandarua which has not developed at all, has managed to run its affairs. They are paying their salaries, running their vehicles and may have murramed a few roads here and there. However, really nothing substantive has been done which was the essence of devolution. If we continue at this rate, the counties which were ahead before devolution will continue being ahead; and the counties which were behind will continue trailing behind. My proposal on the way forward on this is as follows. First of all, the Governors should refrain from accepting to do any pre-negotiation with anybody because there is no way an amount can be proposed by the Government to the Senate and the Senate reduces it. The Senate can only increase it, but it cannot reduce it. So, for Governors to sit with whoever they were sitting with and agree to negotiate a small amount is a disaster. It is not themselves who are now suffering; it is the people of the counties, which they are heading, who suffer. As the Seconder of the Bill said, the responsibility of implementation is with the Governors. However, if they do not get 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."
}