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    "id": 553551,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553551/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 105,
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    "content": "and Appropriations did find itself, Communication should go to the Speaker through the Clerk; this is so if it is a matter of official engagement. Hon. Speaker, may you also find time to make a Communication considering the important function the Budget and Appropriations Committee plays for Parliament. Is it also not necessary that through our House Rules and Procedures Committee we begin thinking of how the composition of the Budget and Appropriations Committee should be? I am of the view that this is one committee which should be the strongest in Parliament. It should be a committee on which virtually all chairs of committees of Parliament sit. This is so that the views of these committees in terms of oversight, usage of funds and application of resources committed to the various departments that are overseen by those committees are permanently with the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Hon. Speaker, I want to raise a concern in my last statement. You know there is a good reason as to why the people of Kenya said that the budgeting function shall move from the Executive to Parliament. As you make your decision, may the Chair take note that some of us are deeply agonizing whether Kenyans were mistaken or whether, as the 11th Parliament, we have reckoned with the fact that the budgeting function is still a function of Parliament. There was a good reason that, as the representatives of the people and as the Assembly of the nation, we have development needs. We know them. We interact with the people and we can prioritise them. Really, the Executive is merely a stakeholder in terms of telling us their development agenda and policy. We just need to factor them in and prioritize the needs of the people. The manner we have proceeded in the 11th Parliament is such that the Executive is still budgeting. Actually, we have a very perfunctory role contrary to the provisions of the Constitution on budgeting. May I suggest that we go to the PFM Act and the Standing Orders? If there is any provision in these sources of law that is limiting the will of Kenyans and the provisions Kenyans made under Article 95 of the Constitution, we should remove them because they are unconstitutional, and so that the budgeting function truly comes to Parliament. There is a reason why we are saying this. We are having the Executive propose estimates and send money to non-development areas. Schools in this country do not even have teachers! I raised a question about schools in my constituency. The average number of teachers in a primary schools is five. Why can we not find money for such important things? Does the Budget and Appropriations Committee know that a law made by this Parliament requires the national Government to establish a university in each county? We still have people moving all over, yet we sit here pretending to be budgeting. Does the Budget and Appropriations Committee know the suffering we are going through in the health sector across the country? Time has come, and I would request that you communicate this when you address the House, for the House to take this noble function the people of Kenya vested in it seriously, so that we can build the nation. Thank you so much."
}