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{
    "id": 477329,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/477329/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
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    "content": "people might have left Nairobi to go and look for better investment opportunities in Isiolo County. More people might have left Migori County or some people might leave Homa Bay County to Migori County. Yet you are wasting about ten years assuming that the population is still the same. Therefore, the money continues being allocated to a particular county using a stale statistical figure that had been reached ten years earlier. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if we want to ensure that our counties get what they deserve, our attention must move from the discussions about only the figures to the source of those figures which is the NBS. One way of settling the issue of NBS is for this country to move from analogue registration of persons to a digital registration of persons where you can capture data automatically. You can tell which county has more children born than the other. You can tell the information that you have about deaths, births and economic strength of a particular county way early than to wait until after ten years when you do an analogue census. We, as a House - I would be one of the Senators that would love for the sake devolution, to push for the reform of the NBS. It should even concern this House; what is the composition of the NBS, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and who are the people who are dictating what data is being collected? If we are not concerned about the NBs, you will come later to key in the information and your county will automatically get certain allocations that would have otherwise been corrected if we focused on that issue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the second issue is with regard to the use of these resources that are being allocated to the counties. We must first appreciate that although many people assume that we, as a House, just supported a figure that existed, the proposal of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly was that Kshs217 billion should go to the counties. It is through the intervention of the leadership of this House that that figure was moved up. At some stage when the negotiations were taking place, I want to confess that I, as the Chair of Devolution, Sen. Billow as the Chair of the Finance, Commerce and Budget Committee and the Senate Majority Leader among others, had a chance to sit with the Executive and consult and say that this Senate thinks that the money must be increased. It is only after the consultations that we came down to Kshs226 billion. That role is important. However, I would like to say that in the next financial year, and supporting what Eng. Muriuki said, the consultations must be formalized and through all entities so that the figure that is arrived will be a negotiated figure where the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, the necessary committees of the Council of Governors and the national Government entities will sit together to agree on the figure, so that we avoid a situation of pull and push. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, sometimes when we say that we need to sit and talk about costing, people think that we need to just cost the functions of county governments. That is not the point. We also need to know how much money should remain at the centre to take care of education. How much money should remain at the centre to take care of security and all those functions that are remaining at the national level? That should have a bearing on how county governments can deliver on their functions. Therefore we, as a House, have a responsibility under Article 96 of the Constitution to ensure that oversight is achieved. 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."
}