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"content": "back to the formula that the Senate is using. I dare say that out of all the functions that the Kenyan people gave us, this should be the most important function if not the only function that we should work day in, day out, to ensure that the county governments receive enough funds. I say so, because the country is watching us carefully, whether or not we are going to protect devolution. Protecting devolution is not following the Constitution of this country by devolving functions. This is because the Kenyan people have said, under Article 187 of the Constitution, that unless the resources follow the functions, those functions have not been devolved. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the question of Level 5 Hospitals must be resolved by this Senate at some point, because we have included in this Report a schedule of 11 hospitals that will get a conditional grant of Kshs1.87 billion. As we pass this Bill, we are aware that this amount is hardly enough to cater for those hospitals. So, even if we sit until midnight, we should pinch ourselves because we have not done ourselves and this country a service. In fact, we have left the counties to their own devices which I think we ought to take responsibility for. I, as the Senator for Makueni, must say that I feel very sad. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director, the good lady, Christine Lagarde, was here, one of the things that she said, and I want to repeat it on record, is that if devolution must work, there must be something called fiscal devolution. We must insist that we participate in the budget circle, so that then we do not have the figures that came to us. All of a sudden, we are looking behind our backs and wondering how the National Assembly arrived at those figures. This is because in the spirit of the new dispensation the Budget of the Republic of Kenya is no longer siri kali . It is not a secret. We should know how these figures are being arrived at, so that we can then participate in a Shilling by Shilling and not deal with global figures which look very entertaining. As a matter of fact, we have been given records by the Controller of Budget of counties whose development budget for the last financial year was at 18 per cent. It is a shame. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I wind up, I want to say that it is not enough to pass budgets here – very nice looking figures – if we cannot insist on the provisions of Article 207 on financial prudence. At some point, we must start reading the riot act, if we have to. Again, we must because we are going to sit here, vote and pass this Bill but we do not know how the money we voted for last year was spent. The audits are not here and the reports are not here. Similarly, we are going to vote for this Bill very late in the day in the same manner and in the same vein and yet it looks like we are dipping money into what the Bible says, a “bottomless pit”. It is sad that, in fact, we should be confronted with figures like we are doing here. I suggest that immediately we pass this Bill, the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget together with the leadership of this Senate embarks on a method where we would engage organizations like the CRA that has been given this mandate, so that they do not give us beautiful documents where they want to amend the horizontal allocation as my good friend Sen. Murkomen is talking about. We must participate in this one by one from now henceforth, so that the 43 per cent we have put in our schedule should not look like nice flower we are giving to counties. The 43 per cent that we are 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."
}