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{
    "id": 605880,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/605880/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 286,
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    "content": "devolution, institutions of county governments and governors for the first time. We must be very watchful and careful. That is why, yesterday as we were interrogating the monies that were transferred to counties, I was very concerned that a transfer was made from a system like the IFMIS that is meant to help this Government to ensure that all the funds that we are devolving to the counties are well spent. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Senators have interrogated the enhanced budgetary allocation to various counties, especially there was a mention on Nairobi County. I am interested in that because all of us from time to time, for one reason or the other, find ourselves either as residents or transiting through Nairobi. As a person with a lot of interests in Nairobi County, I want to bring to the attention of Kenyans that it should not be lost to us that Nairobi is a host county. The population of Nairobi during the day surges to about 5.4 million and reduces to about 3 million at night. Therefore, looking at the population alone, it means that all the public utilities in Nairobi are overstretched and outstretched. Nairobi County is the window that every visitor either gets attracted to Kenya or is repulsed. So, the burden and the responsibility on the shoulders of those responsible to develop and ensure that service delivery in this county runs smoothly is quite enormous. I appreciate that there has been an enhanced funding here totaling to about Kshs6.2 billion that will go towards infrastructure. However, if you consider that against the fact that Nairobi County is actually the county that gives this country more than 60 per cent Gross Domestic product (GDP), then you will still find that it is an under funding. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I was going through this Schedule, I was attracted to page 82 again just to emphasize my point. For example, when you are considering allocation ratio on maternity deliveries, look at Nairobi County at Kshs7.04 billion, considering that it is almost triple most other counties. As we interrogate this, sometimes we need to consider certain counties that are bearing the greatest burden of hosting and enhancing development. Having said that, with this enhanced budgetary allocation, I would expect all counties, Nairobi included, that we are not going to experience, for example, what we have experienced this year in terms of flooding, blocked drainages and every other thing that comes with increased population in Nairobi. Considering again that we are now talking of just about Kshs259 billion compared to the more than Kshs2.2 trillion amount that the Budget was dealing with, it is a drop in the ocean. However, if you want to know why even as we want to open the Constitution to fight for and support increased funding to counties, we should look at what this small percentage of money is able to do at the grassroots against the Kshs2.2 trillion that remains with the national Government. Anybody resisting an increased funding to counties has not interrogated this Budget properly. This is because the deliverables that we are getting form devolution in spite of the teething problems that we are experiencing against the backdrop of what is remaining with the national Government, it cannot be overstated that devolution is appealing, it is a success story and that this is the way to go."
}