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{
    "id": 542433,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/542433/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. First of all, if one looked at the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, it is not very easy to go against it. Their four points are very logical, and they connect what the House or the Senate needed to look at, which they ignored. Another important thing I would like to point out is that sometimes we try to replace creativity with criticism. That is part of what the Senate is doing rather than being creative. This time round, the Division of Revenue Bill had a lot of creativity in it to an extent that you wonder why the Senate did not bring these suggestions last year. If you look at the issue of the foregone user fees that they have brought in, and the Fuel Levy Fund, you will appreciate that there was quite some creativity in what the Budget and Appropriations Committee did this year. The Senate came in just for purposes of adding more money and trying to create Vote Heads for the county governments. This is not very nice. We are trying to create Vote Heads for counties when we know very well that they can create their own Vote Heads. The contradiction that the Senate is introducing in the Budget- making process is not very good. The logical bit that the Budget and Appropriations Committee has done is evident, in that there is a flow from one part of the Budget to the other in terms of the process. The Senate is ignoring this effort. We need to convey this very clearly. Rather than get into a situation of moving backwards, we need to move forward. When it is clear that it is not our role to create Vote Heads for the counties, it is not good for us to do so. They have the 2 per cent for emergencies in their own arrangement, just like they had their own arrangement where they could use money for roads. They were using that avenue even though we had not provided for them. Therefore, it is important that we allow counties to do this on their own rather than imagining certain things for them. The other thing that has come out very clearly is the issue of Level 5 hospitals. For some time, we have debated the issue in this House. We have said that the counties have a big problem in running Level 5 hospitals. It is good that the House went ahead and reinforced the Level 5 hospitals in terms of providing for conditional grants. Those are enough creative efforts, which we cannot allow the Senate to interfere with. It is important that we support the Committee and do away with what the Senate has recommended. They are not creative enough. Thank you, hon. Speaker."
}