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{
    "id": 917023,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/917023/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, because of the limited roles that the Senate has been given, it falls into the adage that an idle mind becomes the devil’s workshop. They have started creating mischief because they have nothing else to do. They are challenging the Appropriations Act that is basically saying how money in this country will be shared out and used. The Senate has threatened to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of several laws, including the Appropriations Act. Members, you need to ask yourselves what would happen if that challenge was to go through. You will all be out of here. There will be no money to pay you. There will be no money to pay the doctors. The Government will have to shut down. Even the Senate itself will not be flying those choppers because there will be no money to finance the activities. The whole country will be brought to a standstill. Are those the people upon whom you have bestowed the responsibility of protecting counties and doing what they are supposed to do or basically they are trying to bring this country into a standstill? As I said, this is all mischief. I do not want to belabour the points made by other speakers. Hon. Junet has said very clearly that we envisaged a Senate that would be sitting quarterly to deliberate on a few things. Article 217 of the Constitution says that once every five years they will determine the formula. It is a function they do once every five years. That is the main responsibility of the Senate. Within Article 96 of the Constitution it is to determine the allocation of money across the counties, which they are supposed to do once every five years. We did it for them in this House in 2012. They did it again and now they are supposed to be doing it the third time. After that, they have nothing else to do because once the formula has been determined; the rest is the horizontal allocation in accordance with that formula. It is an arithmetical exercise. It does not require the Senate to sit down, determine and bring it here. Anyone at the National Treasury or the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) can do it. Apart from the function that they are supposed to perform after every five years, what else does 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."
}