Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 545678,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/545678/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 152,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Lati",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2762,
        "legal_name": "Jonathan Lelelit Lati",
        "slug": "jonathan-lelelit-lati"
    },
    "content": "It even gets worse if you consider the items that are brought in for supplementary. You would imagine that somebody who has done budgeting in a Ministry or in Government and has been running these things year in, year out, would still have some experience to know the kind of maintenance they would need for a year. For somebody to bring a supplementary budget for maintenance, it raises a lot of questions. You should have at least estimated what you maintain in a year and allocate some money. If you look at things like salaries, these are straightforward issues. You should know who you are employing at the moment and who you intend to employ during the year so that you do not bring us as a Committee, House or country things like salaries. It is embarrassing for anyone who has done budgeting to come at the middle of the year requesting additional funds for salaries. It just shows how reckless we tend to be in terms of our budgeting. This is important particularly if you consider today that our GDP did contract last year. We are living in tough times if you consider the whole scenario of Kenya today. Pending Bills and taxes are obvious things which should appear in any budget at the beginning of the year and should not be in the supplementary budget. There are things which tend to serve the people of Kenya in the basic way that we want though they are supplementary. I happened to visit a Huduma Centre a few days ago and found something that is very useful to the Kenyan people. I hope this money will be used to expand Huduma Centres to far-flung places of our country like Samburu where Government services are things that are probably unknown in many aspects. I also saw the issue of security operations in this supplementary budget. It brings a lot of sympathy when you consider that we are under terrorism threat and this is one area that I will take as a supplementary item anytime anywhere. This is because we need to make sure that we are safe. We do not foresee these things and it is necessary that we make our security forces functional to deal with these terrorists. This money should be used well. I have seen cases where security operations are planned, particularly in cattle rustling areas like Samburu and Baragoi. Money is sent to carry out operations but it is exhausted by people who are taking allowances and many other things without any operation taking place. People of Samburu North today, for instance, do not have their cattle back and the money that was allocated for operations is gone. Although sympathetic on security operations, I think it is one area we should consider as Kenyans all the time and every time because of the kind of situation and times that we are living in. Hon. Speaker, I have also seen emergency funds on relief food. There is need because of the long drought. It is very sad for those of us whose areas are recipients of relief food, this food ends up in the management of District Commissioners (DCs) who are thieves, if I may say. They steal all the food and people remain hungry. The Government keeps pumping food into those areas for no reason and the beneficiaries are Government officers. It is very sad for us to keep sending money on emergency relief food thinking we are helping a victim of drought in Turkana or Samburu, but we are actually feeding a very big stomach of a DC. I have also seen a supplementary budget on livestock. As a country, livestock is a very important part of our economy but we always tend to lose track that the only livestock is the grade cows in some parts of our country, the zero-grazed cows in down 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."
}