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{
    "id": 900253,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/900253/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. We do not have a moodometer in this House to measure the mood of the House. This is a House of debate. It is indeed important that you allow us to raise some of the issues that we have. The Division of Revenue Bill goes through a serious process. We have the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and IBEC. We have seen the budget going up. When the budget goes up, it goes without saying that the sharing amount should also go up. I was looking at Article 203(e) of the Constitution which says that as you do the Division of Revenue Bill, you should ensure that the county governments are able to perform their functions that are allocated to them. As we are doing this, have we done any cost benefit analysis to see whether the county governments will be able to perform? We know very well that the county governments have a lot of pending bills. It is unfortunate that we were not given full details by the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. We know there was a deficit of Kshs9 billion and the Public Finance Management Act is very clear. When there is any shortage, it is the national Government to take responsibility. When we continue subtracting this money from the counties, we are getting worried that devolution might fail. It is really important for us here to differentiate between money meant for counties and maybe that meant for the governors who are corrupt. Any governor who might be corrupt in one way or another will face the law, but that should not be the reason that we should subtract money from the counties to negate devolution. That is our big concern. This matter came up in 2013. It went to the Supreme Court which gave an advisory. If you read Article 96 of the Constitution, it clearly stipulates that the Senate plays a critical role in representing the counties and county governments. So, to me as an individual, I see that the Senate was in order to do whatever it did. I do not want to differ with my leader because he was passionate about this and I remember very well in the last term he was also very passionate, but The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}