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{
    "id": 878188,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/878188/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 629,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to concentrate on the division of resources; the area of vertical allocation between national and county governments in as far as the resources of this country are concerned. We need to know whether or not we really believe in devolution. Have we accepted to go the devolution way or not? The Transition Authority, at that time, was supposed to ensure that functions must be followed by resources. Therefore, we should be seeing resources that are equivalent to the functions that were devolved. However, we have problems up to now. We are seeing a struggle and reduction of funding instead of an increase. The amount of money that remains in the national Government is still much higher than we had hoped. The ratio of Government is still much higher than we had hoped would be by year seven of devolution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am extremely surprised by the fact that the national Government would like to equip over 6,200 health centres. For the last seven years, health centres have been under the county governments. If it is true that there are resources for equipping, what is the problem with releasing the funding to the county governments for the same equipment? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I say this because when I went around our health centres in Uasin Gishu County, I discovered idle equipment that was released by the national Government. So, what exactly are we doing as a country? Why do we want to take more equipment to the counties when the first equipment released has not been utilised? We are a little disadvantaged in Uasin Gishu County because we do not have a Level 5 hospital. We have had double suffering because we cannot get the Conditional Grant that is given to counties that have a Level 5 hospital but further still, it means we have more equipment that is idle. When I went to Ziwa Sub-District Hospital which we are proposing to be our Level 5, I wondered if the Ministry came to analyse and inspect it, why we would not spend the money that they would have given us to upgrade it and make it a worthy project? It may be true for us and two or so other counties that do not have a Level 5 hospital that if we truly want to support our counties, then we should use the conditional grant rather than stop the grant from reaching the counties and use it to elevate the facilities that we have. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with the Council of Governors (CoGs) that there are unfunded transfer functions. The work of the Transitional Authority (TA) would have been to inform us, at that time, what the cost of the transfer functions were. This is because if we had known the cost as of 2012, we would have been talking of figures. I found that although counties have raised this issue, they have not quantified it to tell us how much difference there is between what was transferred and what they should be having as funding. Therefore, we need to relook that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my only urge to this House is that, as we congratulate the Committee for raising the equitable county allocation to Kshs391 billion and recommending the equitable share to be 335 billion, we need to find out whether we believe in devolution so that we increase funding in the devolved units. This is because, 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."
}