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{
    "id": 668531,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/668531/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Lati",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2762,
        "legal_name": "Jonathan Lelelit Lati",
        "slug": "jonathan-lelelit-lati"
    },
    "content": "We have to note that this is the second time that we have done programme-based budgeting. This is very important in line with our constitutional requirement. Having said that, this should be the beginning of the budgetary legislative process for this House. If we appropriate money, pass this Bill and allow the Government to spend and have a weak oversight role as Parliament, we will do a lot of disservice to our country. This should be the beginning of the work of Parliament in terms of committees to make sure that we oversee the projects that were supposed to be done with this expenditure. That is the only way we can grow our country into a middle income country. That is the only way we can improve the lives of our people. So, I urge Members here that this is only the beginning. We appropriate and then oversee to ensure that the bureaucrats in Government use this money in the right way to ensure that our people develop and we get to be a middle income country. This is the biggest Budget since Independence. A Kshs2.27 trillion Budget is very big by all standards. As one of the Members said here, it is bigger than the entire East African budgets combined. So, we must make sure that this money has an impact in the lives of our people. This Budget is like every other Budget that we have had for so many years. It is a deficit Budget. Therefore, we burden our future generations in terms of debt. We must grow ourselves into a balanced Budget so that we do not burden the future generations of our country. However, the most ideal thing would have been to grow a surplus Budget so that we can grow sovereign wealth for our people. That is the only way countries survive through lean times. If we have surplus budgets and grow sovereign wealth, we can go through the downtown times of global economic circles. As one of the champions of the Equalisation Fund, I have to say this is a proud moment for me and our country because it is the first time that we are going to appropriate the Equalisation Fund. The law required us to have done that many years ago, but it has taken us this long. For those of us who are very passionate of the Equalisation Fund, the insight of the Constitution was to ensure that those Kenyans who have been marginalised for so many years get at par with the rest of the country. You would expect that this should have been done immediately after the promulgation of this Constitution but it has taken this long. It will take longer for the marginalised groups to be at par with the rest of the country. I thank the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Treasury for at least starting this process and making sure that the Equalisation Fund is part of this Appropriation Bill, so that our people can also grow as the rest of the country in terms of economic development. That way we are sure that if the trend goes as provided for by the Constitution of Kenya, one day our people will feel proud to be truly Kenyan. The old adage of where I come from in northern Kenya which says that when you want to go to Nairobi you are going to Kenya, will probably end with the Equalisation Fund. Kenyans should feel that they belong to every corner of this country however far flung that area could be. So, we as Members from those areas are proud that at least the process has begun to make us look like the rest of the country economically. We have problems with the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NGCDF) in terms of people taking cases to court. However, every Kenyan today can see the work that has been done by NGCDF. That is probably the best devolved fund that has ever been done by this country. We pray that the judges in these courts see the light and understand that children in the rural areas depend on bursary funds from NGCDF. Those poorly built classrooms in far-flung areas and any other rural places depend on NGCDF. I hope these judges do not live in some outer space. They should know from their leafy suburbs in Nairobi that Kenya is still what it was many years when they were going to school in the rural areas. With those few remarks, I support. Thank you. 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."
}