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{
    "id": 730498,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/730498/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Tonui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "and be eligible to get the Kshs4.2 billion. That way, all counties will get a share of the Kshs4.2 billion. Major functions such as water services provision fall under counties, and we need to adequately fund them. The additional Kshs23 billion will go a long way in the provision of piped water to our people in counties. County access roads are also very important to development in our areas, and so, we need to provide adequate funding towards this area. Owing to the classification of roads which was done by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB), many of the roads were placed under the jurisdiction of counties. This left the national Government with fewer roads. Therefore, it requires provision of more funding at the county level. I believe what the Senate has done is right. There are issues of corruption in counties, but elections are around the corner. If we think that the people who are in the counties are very corrupt, let us elect angels next time so that they do not loot the monies in counties. I also wonder if the people we have at the national level are angels. Issues such as the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal happened at the national level; it did not happen at the county level. Sometimes I wonder if devolved corruption is better than national corruption. Although corruption at the local level is bad, at least those resources will circulate at a lower level. I wish that we could fight corruption at all levels so that the funds meant to serve the public go in that direction and are not looted. It seems we are unable to fight corruption in this country. The lower the level we disburse funds the better. Possibly, the common man will be able to watch over those funds at a lower level. In my constituency, I have been able to devolve the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) to the sub-location. I believe it is better managed and supervised in terms of corruption because it is the members of the public themselves who oversee the NG- CDF funds in Bomet Central. That is why we need to encourage lower levels of devolution. I heard some of our colleagues saying that we need to suspend disbursal of development funds to counties because of corruption or the elections. Development needs to continue. Even though we are facing elections, we need to continue with development. If we suspend disbursement of development funds to counties, does it also mean that we need to suspend development funds to the national Government? Do we believe that the people in charge of development at the national level are angels who cannot loot? From my experience, they are not angels. Those are the same people who want to ensure that they manipulate politics at the local level. The people who pocket money at the national level sponsor their political projects at the grassroots level. The issue of development should be delinked from elections. If we provide development funds for the national functions let us also provide funds for development at the county level. With those few remarks, I thank you."
}