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{
    "id": 923668,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/923668/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 57,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "what we are talking about to go to counties to help them meet their constitutional commitments on agriculture, health, water and all other devolved functions like forestry and so on. This being a Bill coming round two, so to speak – with the same content and our attitude, intention, direction, commitment and resolve the same – we need not spend too much on time on it. If we have sufficient numbers, we need to bring that to a speedy conclusion and vote on it so that we can tell the country that this Senate remains and will always remain the first and last line of defence for devolution. That is something that we shall say and pronounce ourselves on without any fear, favor or prejudice to anybody. I beg to second this important Bill and urge Members that the reasons that made us to walk all the way to court to defend devolution, the status and stature of this House are the same reasons that we should unreservedly pass this Bill so that we can unlock the flow of resources to the counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, it is true that the ‘Lower House’ has reintroduced the Bill with some strange figures that we do not know where they have come from. We are keeping our fidelity to the recommendations of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). That is why our Bill has Kshs335 billion. Where is the scientific genesis for whatever figure that they have put in their Bill? Where have they gotten it from other than the arrogance of saying that they should give counties this little or this much? That is not how to run a country. We run a country on the basis of institutions whose decisions we must respect. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Article 6 of the Constitution says that there are two levels of Government which work in corporation, collaboration, inter-dependence and are distinct. So, we must respect these parameters set out in our Constitution if we have to move to the future. If this House was to surrender the position that we have taken on the Division of Revenue this year, we shall have no moral ground to stand on in future to challenge and dispute arbitrary allocations of figures and resources to the counties. We must engage and ask CRA, as the constitutionally mandated body, to cost functions that are still being held on tightly by the national Government yet they are devolved and many of them are discharged through devolved units. One wonders what basis the national Government would have to procure subsidized fertilizer, and why water programmes are run from the center. One wonders also why Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) is not devolved to serve units of devolution when over 90 per cent Kenyans live in the rural areas and are treated with support from KEMSA and other Government agencies that must be responsible to devolved units. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I end by urging the House that this is a repeat Bill. If the whips can marshal everybody here, we should vote over it and move on to the next level. I beg to second."
}