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{
    "id": 677019,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/677019/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gikaria",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2489,
        "legal_name": "David Gikaria",
        "slug": "david-gikaria"
    },
    "content": "give practical issues on the amendments suggested. I agree with him that this has been a problem. People are complaining that doing businesses has become so expensive. He gave an example of getting sugar or products across some counties. These counties want to charge levies. I remember vehicles with adverts on their bodies are charged by every county. If one is taking his product from one county to another and he is to cross through six counties, and they have that provision in their fees and charges, he will pay in every county. It is becoming excessively unreasonable for business people to trade. As Hon. Chris Wamalwa said, and I totally agree with him, money collected by the counties never reach the Exchequer as supposed. Most of the money is spent by governors to do their lavish spending and bragging. I was a councillor and we used to collect almost three quarters of our expenses from our own fees and charges. Governors are in slumber because there is a lot of money from the Government. Instead of pushing back whatever is being collected to be used in the counties for purposes it has been budgeted for, it ends up in their pockets. I had raised the matter with the just retired Chief Justice about Nakuru in terms of a court collecting fines and he referred me to the Constitution. I admitted. A year after, he stopped the process and the money is now being paid to the counties. I can assure you that Nakuru County owes people going to court more than Kshs500,000 million. When you go to court and are given a fine or cash bail, that money is never refunded. If your cash bail was Kshs100,000 and the magistrate fines you Kshs20,000, you were supposed to get Kshs80,000 refund. To date, that money has never been given back. We never knew where this money from court proceedings was going, which is supposed to be part of the money we send back to counties. We raised this issue with governors and they continue to charge. It is unfortunate. I will be raising this through the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. The governor continues to charge the residents of Nakuru charges which were in the by-laws. I also want to talk about repetition is the Bill. Most of the issues I wanted to raise have been raised by different people. If you look at some of the proposals as Hon. Wamalwa said, we need not allow governors to spend without approval. When we allow the CECs to oversee county finances as indicated in Clause 64, it should be looked into. The CECs are the people who are going against the law. I remember raising the issue that they were going against the PFM Act. First, we used to have a centralised procurement entity within the county. It was taken to each department and back. It brought a lot of confusion, but now there is some clarity. We will bring some amendments. If a department is given a budget, let it oversee its own budget, so that tomorrow we do not have excuses. As it is, if you try to query any misappropriation, you are told that it never used to be under their docket then. Then, whom do we ask? You are taken round and round and you cannot know who to hold to account. Clause 41 is a bit confusing. I want to believe that budgets are for the Executive. The Executive sits and discusses with the Executive Committee and comes up with a budget. Under the PFM Act, there are provisions as how much you can amend. I did not understand, but maybe, in the Committee of the whole House, we will bring some amendments and visit the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade to explain if budgets are for the Assembly or the Executive. Clause 41 suggests that budgets are not for the Executive, but for the county assemblies."
}