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{
    "id": 927667,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/927667/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung'wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "machines and computer tomography (CT) scan machines which are cancer screening machines in our counties. It means the owners of the leased equipment tomorrow, without this allocation, can pull their equipment away from our county hospitals. Therefore, if you are talking about people killing devolution, then it should be clear to Kenyans who is protecting devolution and who are killing it. As I said, we considered this Bill in as much as we had constitutional questions in our minds. That is why I thought it was important to raise them. As we considered it, we noticed they had removed this money and they have created a further deficit of about Kshs19.7 billion by allocating Kshs335 billion to the county governments shareable revenue. The Senate has not informed the country and this House where this Kshs19.7 billion will be raised from. That is why I am telling Kenyans that any additional shilling proposed by the Senate or anybody to go to the county governments must come either in the form of taxes or further borrowing. Let me use this opportunity to send a warning especially to our Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) and Principal Secretaries (PSs). At the risk of getting into a matter that could be sub judice, I will not ask questions. Count four of the charges leveled against the former CS and PS of the National Treasury was having exceeded the debt ceiling set out in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act. Therefore, what the Senators are telling us today is that the newly appointed acting CS and PS of the National Treasury should go out and borrow a further Ksh19.7 billion. I can assure them that the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mr. Kinoti will be with them in court hopefully next month. This is if they occasioned further borrowing and yet, those who were in office before them have already been charged for having exceeded the debt ceiling as set out in law. I am saying this because Senators are not telling us where the Kshs19.7 billion will be raised from. As I have said, it can only be raised either by further taxing Kenyans or by going out to borrow. Even what we borrow, remember Kenyans will still pay through further taxation in the future. Therefore, there is no free shilling anywhere. Hon. Speaker, allow me to go to what the Committee observed and the recommendations of the Committee. As I mentioned, one of the first observations was that this Bill creates a further financing gap of Kshs19.7 billion above the Kshs6.5 billion that we already created. However, fortunately for the National Assembly, the Kshs6.5 billion additional allocation that we gave to our county governments over and above the Kshs310 billion in the first Division of Revenue Bill, we did show how we intend to raise that money to finance it, but the Senators are asking us for a further 19.7 billion."
}