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{
    "id": 569034,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/569034/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 305,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Musyimi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 95,
        "legal_name": "Mutava Musyimi",
        "slug": "mutava-musyimi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to reply. Let me begin by thanking hon. Members for the quality of their engagement in the budget-making process, which has been with us for the better part of the last five months. I thank hon. Members for the quality of their interventions. I assure them that we have taken note of what they have said. Hon. Members should know that this is the second Budget we are doing in earnest. That is because the 2013/2014 Budget was largely inherited from the former regime. The Budget that we have been squarely responsible for is for 2014/2015. I have watched the learning curve, especially on deliberations in this Chamber, in terms of the way we have engaged ourselves in this process. As the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, I have been impressed. There have been a lot of lessons to learn. Many useful contributions have been made. There are plenty of lessons for us, as the Committee, to reflect on. I want to assure hon. Members that, with God’s help, we will do a fairly better job in the next round. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have given the oversight institutions a lot of money and, not least, the Office of the Auditor-General. The money that was given to the Auditor- General in the last financial year was Kshs3 billion. In the 2015/2016 Budget, we have upped that figure to Kshs4.1 billion. I hope that the Auditor-General will be seized of his responsibilities as there are many budget centres he must audit. As a Committee, we propose that this amount be adopted by this House to give the Auditor-General the capacity to audit the Judiciary, Parliament, National Government, independent commissions and county governments. As we wait for the report from the Controller of Budget on where we can improve going forward, I trust that we will learn and reflect on such reports and act on them. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are issues of fundamental nature that have come up. We have the socio-economic audit process, to which some of the interventions that we have made probably belong. We have given that process Kshs120 million, hoping that it will be concluded in October, 2015. Some of the questions that have been raised about the shared mandate between the two Houses of Parliament and the size of the county assemblies are fairly fundamental. Our society needs to ask such questions as we roll out the new Constitution. Looking at the 11th Parliament, especially the National Assembly, I am very privileged to note the depth of patriotism and commitment by its membership. Ideological and political opposition notwithstanding, there is a general sense that we are in this together. For example, as one would watch the process of trying to get this country a new constitution for some time, the 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."
}