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{
    "id": 787955,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/787955/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 600,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The public debt in this country has become unbearable. More importantly, when you charge your national revenues, the first charge is public debt. Now, one expects that this House and the National Assembly have to interrogate this public debt. How has it been incurred and how does it spread across the country to benefit everybody? How does an El Molo person in Loiyangalani, who pays taxes every time they buy kerosene, salt, matchboxes and so on, benefit from the grandiose programmes that we have in areas that do not benefit them? We cannot put up the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) everywhere. Likewise, we cannot put up a Thika Super Highway in every county. However, when a huge sum of resources will benefit specific areas and exclude others, how do you compensate those areas? People in Loiyangalani may not be looking for a super highway, but they are looking for water, schools and security. Even those, they do not get. How do we compensate them so that their contribution towards the management and payment of the public debt is also worth their while as Kenyans? This is something that needs to be addressed as we look at this Bill. Madam Temporary Speaker, there has been a figure allocated to capacity building. Capacity building is very relative. One time we went to Israel and visited an agricultural institute. The Director asked us: “For how long do you, in your country, build capacity? When the first delegation from Kenya came to this institution, I was an intern. Now, I am an MD, having grown through the ranks and Kenyans are still coming here for capacity building. Surely, can those who came earlier not go and build capacity at home?” I thought that the young man, who people thought was rude, was very candid with us. This is because we continuously train on what we have trained, without evaluation and efficacy of what we have gotten out of it and all this is a waste of public funds. If you look at the counties one of the weakest areas is financial management. However, you will find that they make trips to all manner of places benchmarking on this and that, but nobody is talking about capacity building on financial management as a top priority. This is where the rain started beating us. We started devolution and imposed on counties, structures of defunct county councils that did not have the wherewithal of managing huge sums of money. Assets of the defunct county councils cannot be fully accounted for in many counties. Accountability is still a serious challenge. We want to see that the issues of accountability that are at the rock bottom of managing of public funds are addressed in this capacity building. Equally important is the ping pong between the office of the Controller of Budget, the Treasury and the counties. There is absolutely no reason or justification, four months to the end of the financial year, to be told that some counties have been given a disbursement of only 33 per cent of their national annual allocation. Counties should not be micromanaged. They should be held to account for the money they get so that when you are sending 20 per cent of Kiambu or Nairobi City counties’ allocation also send 20 per cent of Uasin Gishu, Marsabit or Mombasa counties’ allocation and hold them to account. Some counties are slow in the procurement process because of the complications in the law. Some counties do not have sufficient capacity of contractors to do their roads. That does not mean that they cannot do their roads. Let the money be there and hold them 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."
}