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{
    "id": 542435,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/542435/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 166,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "The Senate is becoming an idle House. Sometimes we collide on matters which are clearly stated in the Constitution. In Article 95(4)(a), the Constitution clearly states the functions of the National Assembly as follows:- “95(4) The National Assembly- (a) determines the allocation of national revenue between the levels of governments as provided in Part (4) of Chapter Twelve” Hon. Speaker, that means between the national Government and county governments. That is why we are looking at the Division of Revenue Bill. The role of Senate, on the other hand, is stated in Article 96(3) as follows:- 96 (3) “The Senate determines the allocation of national revenue among counties- --” Clearly, the Senate has no role to play in allocating the national revenue among the two levels of government. That means it is a function of the National Assembly to divide the money among the two levels of government, and a function of the Senate to divide the money among the counties. Looking at the role of the National Assembly in this respect vis-a-vis the role of the Senate, it is clear that the Senate is eating into the functions of the National Assembly. That is why I state at the outset that I will not support the amendments by the Senate. We wish to tell the Senate that they have their functions. It is a function of the National Assembly to look into matters of revenue allocation between the two levels of government. It is this House which looks at the money that the Government has collected. It is this House which can divide that money between the two levels of government. Hon. Speaker, therefore, I would not want the Senate to interfere with matters of the National Assembly, as it has happened in many matters we have dealt with previously. The Senate has been looking into matters which have not been devolved. I watched them question the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology despite the fact that they are not supposed to be dealing with matters which have not been devolved. They even questioned him on the functions of Vice-Chancellors of public universities. Those are not devolved functions. It is idleness which is making Senators to deal with areas they are not mandated to oversee. Lastly, I want to deal with the question which has been proposed by the Senate. The Senate is proposing that we allocate some additional money to the counties. It is in the interest of this nation that whenever we look at the budget which has been made, we look at the money we are supposed to send to the county governments and the money that is supposed to remain in the national Government based on the functions which are devolved and the functions which are not devolved. Coming back and claiming that we need to add some other money either in form of grants or for running some other activities--- The county governments do not lack money. It must be clearly known that the problems we have in the county governments are not about lack of funds. These people have enough funds. It is only that they have a lot of funds to move around, spending it the way they want and even dishing it out in form of handouts. That is why these counties are running down. Although we may not categorically state the credibility of the report which was released by the World Bank, we believe the World Bank always produces credible reports. Most of the counties spend 90 per cent of their funds on recurrent expenditure. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}