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{
    "id": 743060,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/743060/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
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    "content": "Constitution and the manner in which all the institutions of this Constitution are weaved together to deliver good governance in this country. This Senate is not only meant to be a House of final reference for Bills coming from the “lower” House and only to be debated again if there is a controversy that needs mediation as was the case with this one. However, this House is also very important according Article 96 of the Constitution because it is the only institution in the legislative process that is given express responsibility to look after the counties and to make sure that the interests of the counties are defended in every manner. Therefore, the Division of Revenue Bill is a cardinal point which this House must rise up and ensure that the interests of the counties are defended. When you come to a point when there is yet a controversy of how the Division of Revenue Bill will be implemented and the House insists on certain figures, it is not because the House is defying the National Assembly, it is simply because the House is pointing out the right thing to do, when all is said and done. When looking at the progress that we have made in the increase of the Division of Revenue Bill since the inception of devolution, we do believe particularly in the Finance, Commerce and Budget Committee that this incremental approach to allocating money to counties is itself conservative, but it is what we have at the moment. Therefore, if we propose a figure that is higher than what the National Assembly proposed, that is much closer to what the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) had in mind, it is important to take the House’s opinion much more seriously than anything else. These are Senators representing counties. Therefore, as the English people say, “the wearer of the shoes is the one who knows where the shoe pinches most.” These Senators know where the shoe pinches most in the counties. The Members of the National Assembly know where the shoe pinches most in the constituencies. I may know for certain that the funds called the CDF which we were responsible for initiating and Parliament as a whole has more or less ceded the responsibility of looking after the amounts of money allocated in the CDF to the National Assembly. I do not think at any point it has become the responsibility of this Senate or has the Senate ever desired or felt that it is necessary to cut down the CDF. In reciprocating, therefore, it will be important to concede to the Senate an ample say on the Division of Revenue Bill and to look very carefully at the rational as to why the Finance, Commerce and Budget Committee presented to this House a proposal that this House accepted. When the Chairman of the Finance, Commerce and Budget Committee made the representation and, as you will see in our report subsequently, that it was difficult to accept the figures from the National Assembly because of that feeling that I have expressed; that we are the wearers of the shoes who know where the shoe pinches most. I hope that when we finally make this decision we should listen to those figures very carefully that we have proposed to be given to the counties in this Division of Revenue Bill. The Senate Majority Leader went into details on the money being allocated to the counties. I would say that the budget allocated, for example, to the health sector, is still inadequate knowing the problems facing health workers and health delivery systems in"
}