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{
    "id": 897184,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/897184/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me tell you the last truth about what they have said about Level 5 hospitals. This is what the national Government has proposed in order to punish counties: It says: “The funds allocated to Level 5 hospitals are only transitional and may be reallocated to fund Universal Health Coverage (UHC) once it is scaled up.” The national Government and the Treasury are slowly trying to pinch. They are saying the 13 Level 5 hospitals will be funded discretionally. They will translate this money and remove it. While they are giving only Kshs4 billion, they now purport to take it away from our counties. What will be left of devolution, my dear colleagues? It is a sad day and people are talking about referendum to increase and reduce counties. Counties are falling on their knees and bellies on resources alone. I apologise for painting a bad picture of the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019. It is the bitter truth that somebody sitting in Nairobi City is slowly trying to kill devolution. By the time they finish with these allocations, they will come for the Senate and Senators. You will become jobless and carry the casket of devolution on your backs. History will judge us harshly. That is why my vote is no and it will be no. let us go to mediation, let it fail and let the country come to a standstill until we tell everybody who sits in national Government that the 47 counties are not an accident. They are in the Constitution. The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury has said that he has granted himself in the Division of Revenue a discretion which the President does not have. Parliament does not seem to have that discretion. The discretion is to vary changes according to collections. He wants to sit in his office on 14thFloor and make some discretionary amendments. As opposed to that, the national Government should shoulder the burden of a short fall. The discretion is left to one CS Rotich. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this country does not belong to the national Treasury. We must tell him that by rejecting this Division of Revenue Bill. Let us go to mediation red eyed, look at the National Assembly and tell them that this country does not belong to them either. This is because they have not reduced the allocation to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) but they find some very good reason to punish devolution or governors. When you punish devolution, you punish the poor of Kenya, who for the first time, have seen boreholes, roads, hospitals, et cetera . Embu County now has a macadamia factory. People of Isiolo, Kirinyaga and many other counties have now seen development. Are we going to allow this reduction? The answer is a straight no. Kama nimbaya, mbaya ."
}