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{
    "id": 854957,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/854957/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "despite having legal framework at the national level, had no serious PPP projects since 2013. Where is the problem? These amendments will not cure that issue. They will also provide a similar framework at the county level to what we have at the national level, but the problem that has been there that has prevented the private sector from engaging with the Government on projects still exists. That is where the solution must be found. We should ask ourselves whether there is lack of confidence in the word of Government. When I come here and speak about demolitions and some people want to know what is wrong with me, it is because I know what the sanctity of a title deed means to a private investor. If they see on one hand that this Government does not respect the sanctity of a title deed and then tomorrow you invite them to invest on a place where the title deed is the basis, they will not come if the Government does not respect it. Why do they have such high appetite for Government guarantees? They want a sovereign guarantee to do a PPP yet it is not Government borrowing. It is because of lack of trust and political stability. I am glad that now we see a semblance of political stability which came about with the handshake. The other day, we saw the former, His Excellency, the Vice President, hon. Kalonzo shaking hands. That brings some calmness in the country and further strengthens investors‟ confidence in our country. They know that what they invest in this country will last. Mr. Speaker Sir, this Bill brings county governments in PPP. It was long overdue. We understand the principles of fiscal decentralization. If you look at those principles, apart from the expenditure responsibilities that we assign to county governments and national government in the Fourth Schedule, here we are saying that the county government must do this and that whereas the national Government must do this. From there, we move to No.2 which says that counties will raise money from this and national Governments will raise from this in accordance with Article 12 of the Constitution that provides revenue raising mechanisms. Then now you go to No.3 which is the intergovernmental transfer; what we call, the minimum 15 per cent that we give to counties. We start from the wrong place. How much do we give counties? We have not looked at expenditure responsibilities because we have not costed functions properly. For example, we do not know how much it costs to run the health sector in Makueni County. For example, we just estimate and say: “Let us allocate them Kshs300 billion”. People have been talking about the wage bill and punguza mzigo without knowing where the real mzigo is. Today, if you get rid of everybody in Parliament; Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate, all Senators and Members of the National Assembly, you will not have reduced our budget, even by 1 per cent. If you decide to get rid of counties, all the money we take to the counties to pay Speakers, Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) and the money we give county governments for development and recurrent expenditures, we will hardly have scratched 15 per cent of the budget. Therefore, focus must be on that larger amount. Once you go through those principles and after the inter-governmental transfer and go to what we call sub-national borrowing, it is an international principle where you have physical decentralization, we have given our counties a raw deal. In the last dispensation, this Senate put governors to task because of engaging in PPPs because the Constitution is clear that that they must be guaranteed by the national Government. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}