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{
    "id": 926485,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/926485/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "budgeting. We have no choice; we must pay for the Kenya Defence Forces. We have no choice; we must pay for security. So, even as we budget, we do not have a lot of room to play around. That is why you see in this table, the only amount from the national Government which was available for sharing between the National Government and the County Government was only Kshs693 billion out of an expected total collection of Kshs1.877 trillion. Out of what is available for sharing, the Kshs693billion, the National Assembly allocated Kshs330 billion to the county governments when you include the conditional grants. Meaning, for the national Government, the only amount remaining is Kshs363 billion. So, when somebody says that this House is being unfair to the counties, this is what I call sarakasi. We must appreciate figures because they do not lie. I therefore want to urge the Senators…. When I look at the whole process, I think this is dishonesty of the highest order. We go through a mediation process, we agree on Kshs316 billion, then others agree on Kshs327 billion and when they publish their Bill, they do it with a figure of Kshs335 billion, when we had agreed on Kshs327 billion. This is being dishonest. The other thing is, the whole idea of the Senate originating the Division of Revenue Bill is unconstitutional. If they had that power, why did they not change the figure for Parliament or Judiciary so that they meet the amount they are adding? It just says clearly that this is the only House with the mandate to share money vertically between the national Government and the county governments. The other point I want to raise is the issue of this money we have added the Senate. There is Kshs3.6 billion which was not in the original Bill. The original Bill had an allocation of Kshs310 billion. Kenyans must know that the Kshs6.5 billion is not funded. So, somebody must sit down somewhere and think of where this money will come from. It is very clear. I do not expect this country to borrow money to pay salaries. It therefore means that at the end of the day the national Government, because of the Clause 5 that I had earlier mentioned, will have to get this money from the national Government allocation. That is why we are saying, even as the Senators think about increasing money to the county governments, they must be realistic to what is happening to the country. The issue of the Commission on Revenue Allocation is very clear in Article 216 of the Constitution. It says they are expected to make recommendations. These recommendations must be informed by research. That is why you find that when you go to CRA, there are serious academicians. We have serious scholars there. We have Prof. Kimuyu, the Chair herself and other scholars. The essence of having these scholars is to research on financial matters so that as we project our revenue collection, it is informed by real statistics. What has happened? Despite the empirical evidence that we are not meeting our target on revenue generation, they gave a recommendation to add the figure to Kshs335. I have just mentioned that the projection for last year was Kshs1.6 trillion and we ended up at Kshs1.4 trillion. That is why they are told it has to be a recommendation because their figure cannot be the Bible truth. Being an economist, we base most of our arguments on assumptions. There are a lot of assumptions which have been put in place before this figure is arrived at. Even if the assumption does not hold, things are likely to change. That is why I laugh when I hear people say the CRA has said this or that, as if it is the Bible truth. It is not. It is a recommendation informed by a very core research but things can change. As I conclude, I want to offer advice to the national Government that since we are giving the county governments a lot of conditional grants, my recommendation would be, in situations where we have this kind of deadlock… I hope my Chair could listen to this because you will be the one presenting this matter. In case we have a deadlock, I recommend that the conditional 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."
}