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{
    "id": 643808,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/643808/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Tonui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity to support this Bill. This Bill is very critical in ensuring that both the national Government and the county governments function and are also facilitated to enable them make their budgets so that they can spend this money in time. We need to support devolution. This Division of Revenue Bill is a key Bill which tries to support the idea of devolution. This amount of money which we are allocating to county governments which we have adjusted from Kshs287 billion from last year to Kshs302 billion, is in the right direction although I wish that we had maintained that figure which was arrived at by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) so that we devolve more resources to the counties. I believe there are some certain key functions which are handled in the counties better than in the national level, especially when it comes to the health sector. I have heard many Members complaining that the issue of health is deteriorating in the county governments. Previously, even where Jimmy comes from, the Kisii Level 5 Hospital was like a dumping ground for patients. Beds were not even there. There was nothing. Currently, there are beds and better services especially at the dispensary and the health centre levels. Previously, under the national Government, this was poorly managed because health officers who were in the dispensaries and health centres were power unto themselves; they were not supervised in any way. Under the county government, at least there is a Member of County Assembly (M CA) there. People can easily go and report that today there was no one in the dispensary or the health centre. Previously, they used to report around Wednesday and by Thursday they had left. That one is much better function. I am also happy that we are allocating some conditional allocation of about Kshs6.3 billion to the counties for village polytechnics. This is also a move in the right direction because we require certain skills. We need to empower our people to be self-employed. So investment in terms of training and education is critical. I wish that even us in the national Government did something in terms of education. It is unfortunate when we see the budget for education being reduced. The real place where we need to invest our money is in education; in recruitment of more teachers because some schools especially the CDF-initiated schools have only one teacher. What kind of education do you expect from those schools? How will they compete with well- equipped schools with adequate teachers? We need to invest by putting more funds in the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education. 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."
}