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{
"id": 956986,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/956986/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
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"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I will be very brief. This Bill has been ably moved by my Chairman in the Finance Committee. As we pass it in the manner that we are going to do, I want to start where Sen. (Prof.) Kamar has left. The commitments by the Kenya and other African governments in Abuja and Maputo touch on the most devolved functions. Agriculture is wholly devolved, while health is 95 per cent devolved. Yet they are the functions that the national Government least want to support the counties to achieve. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is nothing more important than food security and health for our people. This is what this House must continue agitating for. More importantly is to point out that if you look at the allocations of resources this year to both levels of government, it is a shame that the allocation of resources in the budget of the national Government has grown by 13 per cent from last year. Comparatively, the allocation to the counties has grown by 0.6 per cent. Compare that; 13 per cent versus 0.6 per cent. In fact, that is no growth for the counties, not even taking in to account the inflation. This is, therefore, a deliberate effort by the national Government, with their accomplices in the National Assembly, to claw back and eventually kill devolution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have no doubt in my mind – like many of us do – that the rogue behavior of the National Assembly is not their own. They definitely have somebody backing their bad behaviour. They are voicing what their master is telling them to do. How do you explain the level of arrogance and display of ignorance that we have been seeing from the Members of the National Assembly on devolution, yet they come and live in the counties? The people they represent are the ones who deserve food security and better healthcare. However, they are so blinded with the provision of National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) that they cannot see or say anything else about the people of Kenya. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we pass this Bill, I want to enjoin what Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. said, that there are certain provisions of the Constitution that, as a House – not as individuals in this House--- We need responsible Committees – I do not know where the Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights is. We must move in tandem with comparable jurisdictions like Nigeria where they do not share revenue on the basis of audited accounts. Nigeria shares revenues on the basis of annual budgets. That is what we should do. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, how do you explain, in a budget of Kshs3.2 trillion, that you are stepping down to share slightly over Kshs1 trillion? Consequently, the rest is insulated on the basis of a ridiculous provision in the Constitution about auditing accounts, yet it is the same national Government that makes it impossible for the office of the Auditor-General to act efficiently and be in tandem with budgets in terms of audit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to urge Sen. Orengo that he should lead the pack of leadership and bring a Bill to this House. Let us share revenue on the basis of annual budgets. There is no greater evolution in this country than devolution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I drove through Kitui County yesterday and this afternoon. If you came to Kitui six or seven years ago, there is a big difference. The entire small Kitui Town used to be a slum. Now they have very good paved roads and you can see that there is change. This can be said of many other towns of similar sizes, except where governors, of course, are developing faster than the counties."
}