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{
    "id": 886240,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/886240/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 366,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "“Not less than fifteen percent of county government’s allocation for development expenditure as provided under section 107 (2) (b) of the public Finance Management Act” Madam Temporary Speaker, this simply means that any development allocation for any county, for example, in a county like Nyamira, if it is Kshs1 billion, we must remove 15 per cent of that allocation and spread to 20 wards. Of course, that is spreading ourselves too thin. It means that we will give about Kshs20 million to undertake development projects in each of the 20 wards in Nyamira County. The question we should ask is what project will we do with Kshs20 million? Madam Temporary Speaker, what will happen is that this money will be used for projects that will not have any meaningful impact in our wards, for example, clearing the bush and opening streams. What will have an impact for our people is a situation where we send more money to improve health facilities like what is happening in Nyeri County where the County Government of Nyeri is upgrading their facility from a level 5 to level 6. That cannot be attained with Kshs20 million. That is the point I am trying to make. We need to be very careful. There is an animal that we are now experiencing in this country; that of devolving corruption. When we set up county governments, the biggest fear among Kenyans was that there was a real danger of us devolving corruption. The Chairperson of the Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments (CPAIC) will tell you that year in year out, the Auditor-General continues to raise serious queries on misuse of resources. Money cannot be accounted for in our county governments. The fight is that the more money you get for projects, the more you deep your fingers into public coffers. Therefore, we need to be careful that we do not open another avenue for corruption. This is because the mindset of people is that the moment you give them an opportunity for money for development, it is an opportunity for people to make sure that resources are diverted for personal enrichment. We need to be very cautious. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is an issue of this Bill, most likely being unconstitutional. In Clause 5, the Bill says that:- “A county government shall allocate its resources equitably on the advice of the commission”. I believe that it is the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). However, under Article 216 of the Constitution, the CRA has only been given one principal. Function; and that is to make recommendation concerning the basis for equitable sharing of revenue raised by the national Government, between the national Government and the county governments. There is no mention of a function given to the CRA to determine how to share revenue between wards. In this Bill, we are trying through an Act of Parliament, to create a new constitutional mandate for the CRA, which is not envisaged in this Constitution. What is the constitutional implication? The constitutional implication is that there is a likelihood that somebody may move to court and say, “We are trying to take away powers that constitutionally are vested in the county executives” - That is the governors and giving them to another Commission, which under this Constitution has not been given a mandate to determine sharing of resources among wards. These are things that are very clear and explicit in our Constitution. We should be careful about passing laws that may end up being challenged in Court and they may be declared unconstitutional."
}