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{
    "id": 724420,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/724420/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 118,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gikaria",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2489,
        "legal_name": "David Gikaria",
        "slug": "david-gikaria"
    },
    "content": "“(i) the need for economic optimisation of each county to provide incentives for each county to optimise its capacity to raise revenue.” It is not fair for the national Government to continue allocating money to county governments which have been given a responsibility to collect their resources so that they can bridge the gap. Where they are not given enough money, they should use their own local resources to continue offering services to the local mwananchi . If you look at most counties, first of all, you will find that without any care for the local person, they increase their fees and charges. At least, in the past, when we used to have municipal councils, there were checks and balances by the Ministry of Local Government. If charges were to be increased, the Ministry had to look into them because the municipal councils had to submit and get an approval from them. They would refuse to accept if the charges were high and there were ceilings on how much was acceptable. If you look at the counties as we are speaking now, you will find that it is their responsibility to collect levies and charges. Article 216(3)(a) of the Constitution on the functions of Commission on Revenue says: “(3) in formulating recommendations, the Commission shall seek – (a) to promote and give effect to the criteria mentioned in Article 203(1).” Article 203(1) talks about equitable share and other financial laws, revenue collection and how counties are supposed to manage themselves. Article 216(4) as Hon. Jakoyo has just said states: “(4) The Commission shall determine, publish and regularly review a policy in which it sets out the criteria by which to identify the marginalised areas for purposes of Article 204(2).” For example, if you look at Turkana County which is said to be marginalised, you will find that there is oil exploration now. Just the other day, we passed a law on how much we should allocate a county which has mineral resources. If Turkana, in another few years will be producing oil, the share from its mineral resource will be too much that it will no longer be a marginalised county. We also need this Commission to review these policies on an annual basis. This is so, so that we do not have a county like Turkana getting a lion’s share from the national Government and at the same time it has its own resources in terms of oil production. I do not totally agree with those other marginalised areas. For example, Nairobi County has not increased even an inch of its tarmacked roads and yet it collects a lot of money from taxes. There are other places in Nairobi which are not developed and need to be considered because of the huge population. When this lady takes over she should look into these issues exhaustively and bring them into line. I support, Hon. Speaker."
}