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{
    "id": 536869,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/536869/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 187,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have to change this. I want to urge hon. Senators to go through this very carefully. For those, like my brother from Nakuru, I am not speaking even as the leader of this side; I am speaking as a distinguished Member of this House. We have a constitutional duty to ensure that there is proper, accurate and honest revenue division. That is why I have been disagreeing with the CRA about them trooping to the Office of the Deputy President to sit there and purport that they are sharing the revenue. If you may recall, in the Speech to the country through Parliament, even the President himself said that the Inter-Governmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) has already agreed on how to share revenue and they have agreed on Kshs258 billion. Then what becomes of the work of this Senate? This Senate is not a rubberstamp; we have to look at the figures. I want to encourage my colleagues behind me and even those across the Floor to bring amendments so that we achieve what we want the counties to achieve. I want to see Baringo County tarmacking roads; I want to see Kajiado County giving water to women; I want to see Nakuru County cleaning the streets; I want to see Lamu County doing something different from what the national Government has been doing. We can only do this by giving them more resources. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the challenges of corruption is not for the lack of the law; it is the lack of the will to enforce the law. If we want to lock up all corrupt people in this country, we can; but we play politics with corruption to the extent that when we are naming corrupt people, it is such a fanfare as if Jesus has come back to earth. We want to see contemporaneous audits of the money being used by both county and national Governments. We want to see every expenditure – it is called budget tracking – that when you budget for money and you start spending it, you follow it at every stage to see whether it is being spent properly or not. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to urge this House that if, indeed, we are going by the 33 per cent in the third column on page six, pretending that 33 per cent of what is indicated is from Kshs776 billion, we are cheating ourselves. Therefore, on that basis alone, we should reject this Bill. If we reject the Bill, it is not the end of it; it will go to mediation and figures will be looked at properly. We should not use the guise of constitutional constraints and timelines to allow counties to be shortchanged by the national Government. At the end of the day, even where the resources are being left at the centre – like the resources in the Ministry of Devolution and what we are seeing in the National Youth 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."
}