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{
    "id": 610001,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/610001/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, there is no other institution that is charged with oversight of county funds apart from the Senate. The Kshs1 billion denied to Senators was meant for oversight. If you compare the amount of money allocated to county governments this financial year to what the Senate had asked for to do its mandate of oversight you will find it, it is unfortunate and uncalled for. A time like now when we are doing our best as Senators to ensure that we have more resources allocated to counties so that we fight poverty, this House has been denied Kshs1 billion to oversight Kshs287 billion allocated to counties. We are not bitter today as a Senate. We are saying that it has reached a time when Members of the National Assembly should think the way we think as Senators. We appreciate that we have young Senators in this House. However, the kind of decisions we make today, though we are young, are quality. If you compare us with Members of the National Assembly, some of who qualify to be our parents however, the kind of decisions they make do not reflect their numbers and the experience that they should have as hon. Members. Madam Temporary Speaker, any leadership that does not appreciate criticism is not good. Today, you are criticised but tomorrow you look for a way to revenge. All the institutions whose budgets have been slashed and the Senate’s Kshs1 billion being done away with is because at times, we did not agree with Members of the National Assembly. I want to inform them that budget making does not amount to cutting off budgets allocated to other institutions of Government. For example, look at the Judiciary. The Judiciary is an independent institution. It is supposed to make decisions that are not biased. However, it has lost Kshs800 million; money that was to be used to employ more staff so that justice is not delayed. That would have meant that the work of the Judiciary would be done speedily. However, this is not going to be the case with this reduced budget. Another institution that was affected was the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). The SRC is an independent Commission. We all appreciate the role that the SRC is doing to date. The current exercise by the SRC is to ensure that remuneration that goes to Government officers is in line with the jobs they do. However, its budget was slashed. It is very clear that we will have challenges as a Senate because Kshs1 billion meant for oversight was slashed. Madam Temporary Speaker, as I conclude, I want to say that as we contribute to this Motion today, Kenyans are seeing who the enemy of devolution is. Millions of Kenyans voted for the Constitution. One of reasons why a number of Kenyans spent their time and resources to support this Constitution was the issue of devolution. They were sure that one day and one time, places which could not access Government resources for the first could access them. We do our role as a Senate to ensure that more resources go to our counties. However, the Members of the National Assembly have made a decision to go against this. In the first place, they are the people who are supposed to protect devolution. The Members of the National Assembly come from counties. Despite the fact that they were not elected across the counties as we were, the fact remains that they come from counties. For example, if today, they reduce the allocation which was supposed to go to every 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."
}