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{
    "id": 554568,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/554568/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kimaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2072,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Mutahi Kimaru",
        "slug": "anthony-mutahi-kimaru"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I stand to support the mediated version of the Division of Revenue Bill. First, it shows that Members of Parliament are able to resolve problems that surround us. We cannot hold this country to ransom. We cannot make this country come to a standstill. We cannot allow counties to be disabled or stopped from performing their functions. I would like to hail the people who sat in the Mediation Committee; for one reason or another they came up with a mediated solution. As leaders, we always have the burden of making decisions; some difficult and some easy. This was one of the most difficult decisions to be made by Parliament in general. I am glad Parliament has found a solution. In this solution, we shall find some players; in this case the Senate will cede some ground. When you mediate, you have to meet somewhere in the middle. Everybody has to give ground. In this particular situation, the Senate must cede ground, especially in the allocation given to the Senate for monitoring and evaluation. The Senate was allocated Kshs1 billion for monitoring and evaluation. This translated to about Kshs22 million per Senator. This was not money that was going to any particular project. This was money that was given to the Senators to move around counties and finance meetings. I would imagine this was not meant to give people money to attend meetings, because that is not at all helpful to this nation. Compared to what is given to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF); on average, every constituency gets about Kshs100 million of CDF money. This money goes directly to projects. It was, indeed, a great injustice to allocate to each Senator Kshs22 million just to move around in counties holding meetings and spending money as they will wish. Indeed, that money is better when it is given to the county governments. The only problem here is that county governments have not been the best managers of resources. All over the country, we have seen money allocated to counties not being used well. I have one instance where counties were given money each to employ about 84 medical staff in every county. I have had a chance to consult the Committee on Implementation that went round the country to find out whether any county employed any of this staff with the money that was allocated in the Budget of 2013/2014. None of the counties employed staff. The finding is that none of them did. Although they were given that conditional grant to employ additional members of staff in the medical field, none of them did that. Money has been given continuously to support those members of staff who are supposed 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."
}