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{
    "id": 887002,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/887002/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to second the Motion on the Division of Revenue Bill. I must thank the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee for ably moving the Motion. He has said most of the things relating to this Bill. This Bill is almost 100 per cent informed by the BPS. It is actually an extraction from the BPS. We are now just extracting the figures from the Budget Policy Statement and showing clearly in this Bill how the money will be shared vertically between the two levels of government. My Chairman has said that in terms of how the money will be shared, the national Government will take about Kshs1.56 trillion while the county governments will take about Kshs310 billion. That is the equitable share. After including the conditional grants, that will move the figure for the county governments to Kshs371 billion. Last year, it was very easy to debate the Division of Revenue Bill and it made our work very easy. At that time, through the IBEC, there was an agreement between the county governments and the national Government in terms of the figures. There was a negotiated figure. It made our work very easy. This time, from our interaction with the Council of Governors, it was clear that they have not agreed on the figure of Kshs310 billion. As the Budget and Appropriations Committee, we settled on Kshs310 billion after considering everything that is happening in the country. That is what my Chairman has proposed. There are high chances that there will be further negotiations of those figures. For now, those are the figures we have proposed. Let me make a few observations relating to these figures. This House has been very generous to both the national Government and the county governments in terms of appropriating resources, but with not much follow up. This time, we need to make sure that this House follows up on the resources which have been appropriated more seriously. I will mention a few examples of the conditional grants the national Government has allocated to the county governments. Last year, about Kshs600 million was allocated to help in the construction of county headquarters in five counties. Those were the counties that were not able to construct offices by the time they became county governments. This year, we are adding Kshs485 million. How many of us in this House are aware of the status of those county government headquarters after pumping in Kshs600 million last year? You will find that even the Members of Parliament in those counties may not have seen anything and yet, as a House, we are allocating more money. It is important that even as we approve these figures, we should get progress or status reports of those areas we are allocating money to. There is also the area of development of youth polytechnics where we have allocated Kshs2 billion to be shared by all the 47 counties. This money is targeted at improving youth polytechnics which are now being called vocational training institutions. We pumped in Kshs2"
}