Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 478857,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/478857/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 390,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "shareable revenue at Kshs266.66 billion contrary to what the National Assembly had suggested. Although Senator Professor says that we should all go on vacation, I doubt I have any vacation. But more importantly, we should state that there are many things that we have not resolved or sorted out in our Committees. I think a week should be allowed, so that we can clear pending work. When we resume we can have a clear desk, value for money and account for the time that the people of Kenya have put us in this Senate. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to say that it is absolutely critical and it is important because tomorrow is 1st August, 2014 and the financial year begun on 1st July, 2014, that means we are already 30 days late. It is important to say that this sort of delay has a spill-over effect whether in 2014 or 2015, but it will reflect somewhere in the remaining three or four years of the county governments. Therefore, it is important we resolve this so that we do not, at one point, accuse governors of hoarding money and not subjecting it to development yet we did not do our duty as required by the Constitution. Article 96(3) gives us this mandate to make a determination on county allocation of revenue. In my perspective, this Article is our core mandate. Therefore, recess would be a travesty to our own constitutional duty to protect counties. I support this Motion to extend our sitting. Machakos County is waiting anxiously to an extent that they are publishing all sorts of things in the newspapers thus spending public money to do things we should be doing. I condemn such actions because it is waste of public funds. I think it is a waste of public funds to publish allegations and evidence in the newspaper when the matter is already before the Senate. It is important for the people of Machakos County whether or not, the deputy governor will remain in office or be impeached by this Senate, to refrain themselves from publishing allegations in the newspapers. The country will be watching whether we shall be taking leave and disappear into the comforts of wherever we will be going without doing one of the most important things, including passing the County Revenue Allocation Bill and impeachment or lack thereof of the deputy governor of Machakos County. To support the adjournment, there are some duties that we are supposed to carry out in our counties. We need to explain to people what we have been doing. This is the time we should have gone to the counties to explain why the Sang Bill should have been assented to a long ago. It would be important to explain to counties why Senators have insisted to participate in the coordination and implementation of projects so that we are not left out in issues that we were elected to carry out so faithfully. In addition, Mr. Temporary Speaker, it would be important as we go out there for recess, to explain to our counties; as we pass the schedules attached to this paper, that there should be financial prudence. I urge Senators to make a point of going to County Assemblies of their respective counties and explain to them why this should not be a matter of academic purposes and that what we are doing is important for all counties. We must share the knowledge we have acquired in the last few days. The bulk we have allocated here about 70 per cent will not go to development expenditure. These are things we must explain to counties. We must let them know that there is no way that devolution will succeed unless we revolutionarise the way this money is being spent. More importantly, we should insist that the Senate will not turn a deaf ear to misuse of public resources by persons whom we have elected at counties and who have become small gods. 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."
}