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{
    "id": 554558,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/554558/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 170,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A.B Duale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "provides that the Senate in this case determines the allocation of the national revenue among counties as provided for in Article 217 and exercises oversight over national revenue allocated to county governments. In both the letter and the spirit, the Constitution is very clear that the Division of Revenue Bill is solely within the confines of the National Assembly and the County Allocation Revenue Bill, which determines revenue distribution among the counties, is solely within the confines of the Senate. I am sure that the Budget and Appropriations Committee, headed by Hon. Mutava Musyimi, with great minds like Hon. Mbadi, argued along this line in 2013. However, our colleagues went to the Supreme Court, where six of its judges decided to give an opinion. I want to ask our learned friends in the Supreme Court to, please, say it as it is in the Constitution. Just because they did not want to make a determination then, we are now in this problem. The framers of the Constitution did not provide for what happens when a very important Bill like this one collapses at the mediation level. Second and more fundamentally, the problem that the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly faced was not even about the Kshs3.3 billion. It was about the principles because the budget-making process is based on fiscal and financial principles, and on the Public Finance Management Act. The Budget-making process begins on the day the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury submits to Parliament the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) – which is the fiscal framework of the national Budget – to when both Houses of Parliament debate and approves it. The function of the Senate is to note the BPS, while the National Assembly adopts it. The Senate went ahead and noted the BPS; they never raised the red flag then. Hon. Speaker, we have a consultative fora provided for by the Constitution and the statutes: the Council of Governors, the National Treasury, the Controller of Budget, the Commission of Revenue Allocation, the Inter-Governmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC). The Council of Governors met and agreed on a negotiated amount. The National Assembly, in its wisdom, rose to the occasion and said this is a negotiated figure. The National Assembly has the powers to reduce or increase it by Kshs50 billion. Nevertheless, the National Assembly, in their wisdom, decided to respect the Kshs258 billion provided by this team. In order for us to ensure that we do get into this kind of a quagmire next year, we will ask that the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the Finance Committee of the Senate be incorporated into the IBEC team. Once the two Houses are involved, the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly will be saved from this entire problem. The Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the Finance Committee of the Senate should be involved in the negotiations, so that what comes to the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly will be a product that will not create acrimony."
}