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{
    "id": 801765,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/801765/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 104,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ernest Ogesi Kivai",
    "speaker_title": "The Member for Vihiga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13502,
        "legal_name": "Ernest Ogesi Kivai",
        "slug": "ernest-ogesi-kivai-2"
    },
    "content": "anything unless you can find somewhere else. If you add here, you must subtract there.” That is the guiding principle we were given. We need to look at the Budget in totality. Every year when we consider the Budget Review Paper, this Parliament should be apprised on what the real factors that will guide us are. Luckily for us, we have the four pillars that guide us. Everything around the budget-making process should revolve around the four pillars. The next thing is what we will do around those pillars. How do we finance it? The other problem I found when we were coming up with this Budget, especially starting with the Supplementary Budget, was that we wasted a lot of time in our committees trying to work out what should or should not be done. We allowed the Executive to interfere in that process. I am aware of some cases where it was made very clear to us that it was very important to make some changes which we did. Somebody somewhere simply cancelled what we had done. While on the issue of the supplementary budgets, if we come up with a good budget, we should not entertain so many supplementary budgets because they could be an excuse for people not to come up with a good budget. Within a span of one year, you should know what you are going to do. But if we have a situation where every year we have three supplementary budgets, it could be a way of bypassing the good budget-making process. We should have a way of discouraging those supplementary budgets. Another thing which came out clearly during the budget-making process, and this one impacts what I am talking about with regard to supplementary budgets, was the development budget, which is taken as an appendage. Nobody takes it seriously. When there is no money, it is the first casualty of the Budget. That is very dangerous. We should safeguard and ring-fence the development budget because you cannot always steal from it in order to finance the recurrent expenditure. That is something we should take into account as we move forward. Listening to the presentation of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, I should have started by appreciating the job they did, which was very thorough. I attended some of their meetings and had a chance to go through the whole Report. They have done a commendable job. I was just a bit worried when they say that they will be visiting various counties and it is only when they visit your county that you are likely to be seen and considered. It should not wait for that. There are ways of getting information from our counties on what is important and what is not. When the projects were read, I just kept on wondering where Vihiga was in all that. Is Vihiga in Kenya? I never heard of any project anywhere near there. If we say that you should wait for your turn, it might be too late. That is another consideration that we should take in mind. I started by indicating that I have not been able to catch your eye for a very long time. In the process, some infamous list was circulated of people who have not talked in the House. It is common knowledge to all of us that a lot of parliamentary work is done in committees. If this list was done properly, the authors should, at least, have checked with the parliamentary committees to see what our input is. We cannot all speak here. Some are unluckier than others. That list hurt a lot of people. I would not like to think that it started from this House. As I said, I have now learned the tricks on how to catch your eye. I intend to be a very active Member of this House."
}