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{
    "id": 736907,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/736907/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. This House is full of democracy and I am glad that decision was taken. I rise to contribute to this discussion. Anytime a Bill is recommitted to the House for any reason, it will be time for us to examine it yet again. So, this is a very good opportunity. The delays are unfortunate and have been driven largely by our disagreements with the Senate. My position as the Member for Nambale is that any extra shilling that goes out to our rural areas and is used to do what it is supposed to do, is a shilling used better than if it is kept in the Treasury for use in urban places like Nairobi. In our debate, we tend to focus too much on the efficiency of the resources sent to county governments. We do not pay enough attention on similar shillings, which is much more than what goes to the county governments and remains with the national Government. Let me start by commenting on those resources that stay under the purview of the national Government. It consists of two way division and what can move from one side to the other is still a contribution towards the discussion of the division of revenue. In accordance with Article 203(1)(a) and (b), there are funds allocated, once defined as the national interest. Under this, there are a couple of components that are really critical that we have not paid sufficient attention to. One of them is the discussion on social safety nets. The allocation for the social safety nets is really small. We have an allocation of Kshs17billion up from Kshs16.9 billion, a very modest increment and yet when the President was before this House, he said that beginning next year January, everybody above 70 years age who meets certain means test such as the income test, will be eligible for cash transfer. This is more likely going to cut it and that may be a shortfall in expectations that we are likely to have. Hon. Speaker, I see a component on school subsidies for the Class Eight and Form Four exams. We should now be enhancing this by allocating resources for assessment tests that determine the learning levels of our students. We are going to move away from national exams but we must provide more now. This kind of provision is very marginal. What concerns me more is the public debt. The provision on public debt is in accordance with Article 203(1)(b) of the Constitution, that has moved up phenomenally from Kshs446 billion to Kshs619 billion. We have talked about debt sustainability. When we think of debt sustainability in terms of the implications of the Budget, then it sinks home because it means that money that would have been released to help our health centers, to do our roads and all manner of things that are essential to move our economy forward, are going into debts. We are accumulating these debts at a phenomenally rapid rate. People who think about this and who perhaps sometimes have all kind of spurious arguments to support the Government’s very voracious appetite for debt, should look at the amount of money that goes from the Budget towards debt, and therefore, is denied from financing other important aspects like health care and education. We are in a nation which this national Government spends only a minimal amount of money on school infrastructure. In fact, the promises they made last year on infrastructure have not been met. They have sent to Nambale a pittance Kshs1 million for only 60 per cent of my secondary schools and left out others, contrary to what we had surrendered here. We had surrendered Kshs34 million, but we only got back Kshs14 million instead. What would be critical is for us to manage our appetite for debt to conserve resources that we raise each year from the Budget so that we can invest in our future. It is our future that matters. Still on allocations to national Government, under the emergencies component, there is only a provision of Kshs1.2 billion for the strategic grain reserve. We are just coming out of enormous hunger and famine. We can reliably predict that we shall have drought every year. We are unlikely to have any year without drought. Each year we are faced with problems. Now we have a very confusing story on what happened to our strategic grain reserve, even more 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."
}