Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 787922,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/787922/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 567,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Kshs4.294 billion yet this year it is Kshs1.281 billion? Does that mean that we do not need a strategic grain reserve or we have stored more food than we need or for some reason are we expecting a bumper harvest? History has shown us that because of the excessive rain we have had, we will most likely have drought because people have not been able to plant crops and crops have been destroyed. These are questions we need to ask the Cabinet Secretaries when they come. Again they have just changed the name to youth empowerment which should just be the National Youth Service (NYS) and they will receive Kshs18.1 billion. I know Sen. Sakaja has a Bill on this matter and I asked him where the money goes. If we do not ask these fundamental questions, we will pass the allocations here and there will be no reserve. The Chairperson and the Senate Majority Leader did not talk about the public debt which has increased tremendously. In Paragraph 11 of the memorandum, the National Treasury should have explained the reason why there is an increase of the national debt to Kshs687 billion. The reason they have given here is extremely shallow and we must as ask those questions. The public debt is considered in division of revenue before they allocate money to counties. For Senators who have this Bill, if you look at the Schedule and the Appendix, you will see that the balance to be shared by two levels of government only comes right at the bottom after they have considered everything else including the national debt. So, we must speak about it. Sen. Sakaja and I are sponsoring a Bill on disaster management. The money allocated every year for contingencies should not sit at the National Treasury because contingencies are happening in counties. Therefore, we must interrogate this issue. Disaster management under the Fourth Schedule is a shared function the same way health is. If these questions are not asked, again we will have a disaster like we have had because of the rains and many others and counties will suffer. Even the money they allocate in their budgets under Section 200 of the PFM Act is not enough and it cannot be enough because we have not done enough. I now want to speak on the conditional grant on maternal health. Why did this Senate not speak about the conditional grant on maternal health? Maternal health care has now been transferred from counties to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). This simply means that this matter has gone out of the hands of counties. If health is truly a devolved function, why should a conditional grant come through the Senate and then be reallocated to a department of the Ministry of Health which gives conditions like asking for the number of babies born in for example Sultan Hamud in Makueni so that the allocation can be given? Maternal health care includes antenatal care. So, you cannot give conditions that funds will be released once a woman gives birth. That is not maternal health care but postnatal care. These are the questions that must be asked but we have not asked them. Therefore, what the Chair said in terms of interrogation about these allocations is something that is boring us. The Chairman mentioned conditional grants like Kenya Devolution Support Programme (KDSP) and I am glad that my colleagues and MCAs of Makueni are here. This conditional grant has bothered our committee. The conditional grant is supposed to help strengthen public financial management, county human resource management and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}