Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 842884,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842884/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Approving this Report by the House is just a ritual. The national Government has successfully ensnared counties and set them up for failure completely. You will remember that two or three months ago, the Senator for Vihiga County made a Statement of this Floor about disbursement of funds to counties. I am in this Committee that is chaired by the distinguished colleague from Mandera County, who has done a good job. However, we are all looking very helpless because the national Government does not disburse funds to the counties. Under the Constitution and international law, the first charge to Treasury funds and our revenues, is public debt. Recently, in the media, you saw the amount of money being paid for the incomplete Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) as the loan repayment to China. There are many other debts to the extent that, today, county governments are on a shoestring budget of only being able to pay salaries. Some counties are even defaulting on paying salaries. There are counties that have three or four months of piled-up salaries for their employees. When you talk to the national Treasury, they give you flowery and handsome figures, all fake and fraudulent, because they are not disbursing any money. The law in this country is clear – thanks to our retired President Kibaki and his Government – that you cannot procure services unless you have money in your hands and a budget line. How have counties accumulated pending bills running to Kshs100 billion? It is simply because they are responding to pressure to develop. Everybody is looking at counties as instruments of development, and rightly so. That is why Kenyans voted for this Constitution; because of devolution. They were tired of the centre having a grip on the life of this country. Kenyans wanted to control their affairs in running their hospitals, schools, agriculture and everything. However, we have an uncaring Government that has gone on a reckless misadventure of borrowing. What they are now engaging in is the proverbial talk of digging a hole to fill a hole. Even what is going on in the National Assembly this afternoon; they have cajoled and armtwisted Members of the National Assembly to go and acclaim the Memorandum from the President, to impose on Kenyans an 8 per cent tax on fuel and fuel products. When Members were talking, I knew that they were just pontificating. I feel ashamed that even the Opposition has joined this reckless misadventure of adding load upon load of debts on Kenyans. In counties today, hospitals have no drugs, not because counties are unable to procure drugs, but because they have no money. Roads that were awarded for construction, even to open up rural access for farmers and traders, have stalled because there is no money to pay those who were awarded these tenders. Rudimentary springs 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."
}