HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 781592,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/781592/?format=api",
"text_counter": 109,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 110,
"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
"slug": "john-mbadi"
},
"content": "polytechnics. The youth polytechnics are just the same way they were before devolution. Something needs to be done to ensure that, that money actually reaches the intended persons and spent on the intended purpose. The other question is who is responsible for county roads. Again, we need to be clear about that this financial year. At least, it is very clear that we are allocating about Kshs8 billion, which is 15 per cent of the fuel levy fund for the maintenance of county roads. I want to ask governors, county management and MCAs in our counties, please, this Kshs8 billion, once it reaches the counties, do not spend it for any other purpose. Use it to construct our roads. We are asked questions about roads which we are not responsible for. In my constituency, I have only two roads which I should be asked questions on. But those two roads, nobody even asks me a question because, at least, they are motorable. The roads I am asked questions about are the ones which squarely fall under the ambit of the county government. Since 2013, the roads that are under county government in my constituency have not been maintained at all. The amount of money that was allocated for roads, what the MCAs did, I do not know whether they were opening new roads or clearing bushes. That is what they did. I do not know who gave them this idea that MCAs are the ones supposed to appoint contractors. I have information that MCAs, if they have, say, a budget of Kshs3 million, what they do is to go to a contractor and tell them, “I have a road for you for Kshs3 million, so give me Kshs1.5 million.” How do you expect a contractor to construct a motorable road with Kshs1.5 million? It does not make sense! County governments, please, do not allow MCAs to bring contractors to construct roads. Construct the roads properly, yourself. The roads which have been opened, please, make sure you maintain them. There is no logic in opening new roads when the roads that exist are not passable. On my final comment, because I know my colleagues also want to talk about this Bill, I have two issues which I will mention quickly. We have ring-fenced the money for counties. Even if there is shortfall in revenue collection, it is ring-fenced and so the counties will just get the money that was meant for them, the Kshs314 billion. Let the national Government, through the National Treasury, release money in good time to counties, so that we do not have these excuse that money has not come. The other one is asking fundamental question. Yes, we have this budget, but where is the money? We need to ask that question. Are we going to collect the revenue that we have projected? If we are not going to collect it, are we going to borrow? If we are going to borrow, two things have to happen. Do we have the capacity to pay back the loans? Secondly, once that money is released, let it be spent for the intended purpose. Let us not borrow money to pay salaries. It does not make sense. Let us not borrow money for our travels or to drink tea in our offices. No one should borrow money to buy sugar. If you borrow money to buy sugar in your house, then you should know you are facing financial distress. Let us be careful when we borrow money as a country and make sure that the money we borrow goes to the intended purpose. My final plea, to us, as Members of National Assembly, and the Senate, is that there is nothing wrong with disagreeing, but let us disagree objectively. Let us not just disagree because we want to flex muscles or we want to show that we also have power. There was a financial year, I cannot remember exactly which one it was, when even after we had agreed with the Senate on how much should go to the counties and the national Government, because there was talk here that the National Assembly is superior to the Senate, the Senators went and changed the figure, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}