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"speaker_name": "Hon. S.S. Ahmed",
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"legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
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"content": "Hon. Deputy Speaker, thank you very much, but we must say that one cannot stay here for two hours and be put in the back by a mistake of a clerk which can be rectified. I am sorry about it, but it is the case. I am not saying that this place is rigged, the machines are bad. The clerks should correct the error. On the Division of Revenue Bill, devolution has been a fight that we have fought for a long time. We started long time ago. We sat through the Constitution review and struggled over the issue of the division of revenue. Change takes time. We agreed that there was going to be a vertical split. The vertical split was the responsibility and the authority that lays with the National Assembly. At that time, we discussed in great detail the role of the Senate. Many of the Senators were in Naivasha and restricted the role of the Senate to ensure that devolution was not killed by a rogue National Assembly. Unfortunately, it is the other way around. It is the National Assembly which is trying to keep the national purse and the systems in order. It is for the Senate, as we said, to do the horizontal split. The vertical split and the horizontal split are very easy when you speak about it in that manner. Remember, we inherited a system that had inherent problems when it came to the issue of devolution. The idea was that we did not want to throw the baby with the bathwater. As Hon. Nyikal said, and I agree with him, the issue of the Division of Revenue Bill is more an issue of procedure and process than the issue of the particular times on that Bill. I know there was another proposal to cut short this debate because this Bill had come earlier. We must, as the National Assembly, work and understand that this issue has many repercussions. We are part of the clock. If the clock is broken, we can only fix it in stages. As such, when it comes to the issue of the National Assembly and the Senate, the Senate and the governors must also play their role. Much has been spoken about what should and what should not have been. The issue, as we said, is that we threw out the local authorities without care to see whether we were throwing out the good bits with the bad bits. We did not throw out many good bits. The local authority system is the one we inherited in 1965 from the British and colonial Government. So, the problem that we are facing is not new and is not going to be solved at this time. It is not going to be solved in another couple of years until we finally understand which clock runs what. Unfortunately, the Senate and the governors seem to think that the National Assembly is becoming a block to their machinations. Unfortunately, the systems that were set up before like the Transition Authority, instead of being extended, were terminated very early. This division of revenue, what people do not understand, is that it is not only the revenue, but the revenue sources. Many of these have been squandered. Many of these have been lost during the transfer from the local authorities to county government. In Kisumu, we lost a lot of good assets like houses. We do not know where they are. When we are now looking at the division of revenue, as it was said by my good friend, the former Permanent Secretary, Hon. Nyikal, these are not simple issues. They have ramifications and one must look at the details. I am suggesting that at this time, we pass the Division of Revenue Bill. I sit on the Budget and Appropriations Committee and we passed it with some of trepidation that it is not going to solve the problem. You cannot solve a long-term problem with a short-term solution. Likewise, you cannot solve short-term problem with a long-term solution. Both ways, we are stuck. Both ways, this is going to be taken this year and it is going to be in the 12th Parliament. We hope we shall solve the problem. With those remarks, I support. I apologise, but seriously feel that I was hard-done by. I apologise for my outburst. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak. 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."
}