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{
    "id": 956937,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/956937/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 373,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
        "slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have come from very far. In fact, Article 96 of the Constitution says that the Senate will protect the interests of counties and their governments. You cannot protect the interests of counties if you cannot determine how much you allocate to them. Attempt by the National Assembly or anyone else, to say that our role is only on the County Allocation of Revenue Bill is futile. We will continue fighting as we go ahead. This particular battle has not been the best. However, going forward and together with the matters that we forgo today, we are in for a long haul. What has happened in the legislative agenda these few weeks is very disturbing. I said earlier that we cannot pretend to be following the Constitution and, on the other hand, violate it in a single day. It is unfortunate that we have a Bill before us today that has been assented to and is not a representative of the mediated version of the Bill between the two Houses, on the basis of which we will pass the County Allocation of Revenue Bill. The only consoling factor is that the figures in the Bill that was assented to is what we are passing. In fact, there is no disagreement on the figure. The figure of Kshs316.5 billion is what we agreed on in mediation. The other item that was introduced through the backdoor was the effective date. For our purpose now, the issue of effective date can be a matter for another day because our colleagues in the National Assembly were trying to sanitize the illegality they have committed by enacting the Appropriation Act, 2019. The minutes of the meeting and the report of the Committee should be deposited at the Supreme Court or with the court in future. They cannot cheat anybody that this Bill was enacted by 1st July, 2019. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I said earlier, we have to move forward and deal with other matters. We will introduce some amendments to the Bill that we have in the clauses and the schedules to the Bill. There are four Schedules. The First Schedule deals with equitable share to the counties. The Second Schedule deals with the conditional grants from the national Government portion of revenue and the Third Schedule deals with conditional grants from development partners and donors. The fourth is a new Schedule which was introduced last year and sets the ceilings for recurrent expenditure for county assemblies and county executives."
}