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{
    "id": 607081,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/607081/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 170,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 260,
        "legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
        "slug": "billow-kerrow"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, I was explaining the population parameter. Again, this thing is about devolution and counties. I want to clarify and discuss one important factor because there are Members who have tried to relate devolution to the CDF. CDF is the fund that deals with development projects only; you are building facilities like infrastructure. In county governments, it is about service delivery. Buying medicine is not like building offices. This is why you cannot say let 75 per cent of the money be shared out equally because of the number of people you are going to provide services. There are a lot of services that have been devolved and we know because we are the ones who transferred those functions; those functions need money, per capita. When you look at, in fact, the way the resources have been allocated, per capita for the small counties with the smaller population is significantly higher than for those bigger counties with bigger populations. The figures have been provided very clearly here. I want to take this just as an example and not because I belittle the counties that have lower population. When you look at the per capita you find that in counties like Meru, with 1.4 million people, the amount of money allocated last year was 5.6 billion. The population for Isiolo was 143,000; you would say very easily that the population for Meru is nearly 10 times that of Isiolo, but the money allocated 1.8 billion to 5.6 billion is only three times. This means that there is no county which, because of its numbers is actually getting so many times that number. It is because population is not the only factor. It is important to note that we are providing service. Therefore, population is a key factor. If you had more people in your county, in fact, you will be insisting that the money be allocated. That is the point I wanted to clarify. Mr. Deputy Speaker, the second point that Members have raised is on the equal share; that we should be given a higher percentage and not 25 per cent. The trouble with the equal share is that what you are going to create is a situation where counties with huge populations that have to provide services to all those people will end up getting the same amount of money as those other counties that have very few people to provide The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}