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    "id": 646054,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/646054/?format=api",
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    "content": "land. So, it is upon each county government to have a policy that will promote its agricultural production and make sure that its farmers earn the most from agricultural production. County governments should enter into discourse with the national Government regarding certain national policies which may inhibit productivity in agriculture in the counties. In that regard, the Senate will come in handy. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would also like to just give a piece of information to Sen. Karaba. The Governor of Kericho, Prof. Chepkwony, was given an incentive to export sweet potatoes to the Middle East and other external markets. The sweet potatoes are available in plenty in southern Nyanza. I understand the Governor arranged for purchase of sweet potatoes from south Nyanza which are now exports from Kericho. This is the kind of imagination in terms of making use of agricultural products that counties should do. If Homa Bay County is not alert that it can export its tomatoes, Kericho is nearby to take advantage of that opportunity. So, rather than counties keeping on looking at the national Government, especially, with regard to agriculture which is a county function, we Senators should ascertain whether the money we give to counties is being channeled to food production and agricultural productivity or not. This is one of the reasons why the Senate has been looking for resources for better oversight and keeping counties accountable. We cannot make sensible statements in this Senate on how responsible governors are using development resources unless we have access to information at the county level. Definitely, Sen. Karaba, will be in a better position to assess what is going on in Kirinyaga if he had some resource to employ investigators and get information on his own rather relying on the same national or county government to get the information. Therefore, the issue that Sen. Karaba has raised is very important. I hope that the oversight resources that we are looking for will make it possible for us to advise counties and keep them accountable on how to invest development resources effectively, especially, in those functions which are already devolved to counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to speak on four issues. The first one is on the locally raised revenue, how it is used and controlled. This comes under the responsibility of the Controller of Budget. The Controller of Budget’s responsibility is, as the word says, to control the budget. He controls the Budget and how it is used. The Commission on Revenue Allocation’s (CRA) responsibility is just to allocate revenue. Once revenue is allocated, the responsibility of how it is used falls in the Department of the Auditor- General. The trouble with the Auditor-General is that he does a postmortem work after the money has been used. So, the Controller of Budget, the Auditor-General or ourselves should ensure that locally raised revenue which by the way, we are not in a position to know how much is raised because neither the Controller of Budget nor the Auditor-General have been in positions to dig into the locally raised revenue and ascertain exactly how much a county raises every year which enters its own budget. We know that these revenues are tremendously understated because of previous figures from local authorities and so on. In order to allocate the money for fiscal responsibility, it must begin with the extent to which revenue is raised locally and used in the county government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I may be wrong but this is my understanding. The 2 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"
}