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"id": 958244,
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"speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
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"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
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"content": "outsiders. Therefore, this matter needs to be investigated, so that value for money is realised. In our proposal, we have recommended an audit to look at this matter more seriously. The other issue that I wanted to mention is that it is not correct to say that we are allocating only Kshs316 billion to county governments. There is additional Kshs13.9 billion that comes from the nationally-raised revenue, which is being given to county governments as conditional grants. Besides, there is the Kshs8.9 billion Fuel Levy Fund which is again allocated to counties. On average, each county should get about Kshs192 million. This is 15 per cent of the Fuel Levy Fund. The Kenya Rural Roads Authority and the national Government receive only 10 per cent. The county governments receive 15 per cent of this Fund. Therefore, whereas each constituency is getting Kshs21 million for roads out of the 10 per cent, the 15 per cent should be able to give, on average, each constituency about Kshs26 million to be used in the maintenance of our roads. So those are amounts that are outside the Kshs316.5 billion, which is equitable share of revenue. A lot has been said, but before I go there, I want to also add onto what Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah spoke about. I want to speak to our colleagues in the Senate: Let us be honest when it comes to matters as important as passing legislation, especially where matters of the Budget are concerned. We did agree on a mediated version. The Constitution is clear in Article 113 that if the Mediation Committee agrees on a version of the Bill, each House shall vote to approve or reject that version of the Bill. The version of the Bill that is agreed on is what each House needs to vote on. So, it is dishonest to introduce in either of the Houses a version of the Bill that has not been agreed on at mediation. If that is what happened in the Senate, it is dishonest and it is not right. It is wrong. We need to condemn it. We discussed and agreed amicably and we left the Mediation Committee laughing yet I hear the other House changed the version of the Bill. And I know why. I think the Senate realised that if they add the date of 1st July as the effective date, that would be killing their case at the Supreme Court on the issue of the Appropriations Act. However, I thought mediation is about give and take. It is about being honest with each other and moving forward. So, I find it really dishonest on the part of the Senate. It means that they did not wholeheartedly accept the Kshs316 billion that is going to the counties. That is not good. To me, I am not worried because, again, the Constitution gave us a solution that if both Houses approve the version of the Bill proposed by the Mediation Committee, the Speaker of the National Assembly shall refer the Bill to the President within seven days for assent. So, any other Bill that does not contain what we agreed on will not go to the President for assent. I do not expect you, Hon. Speaker, to be careless enough to take a Bill that we did not agree on. And there is the HANSARD. I know you are careful enough and you will make sure that the right Bill goes to the President for assent and will be assented to. So, I am not even bothered about asking the Senate to do some other things. It is clear, in my view, that you will take the correct version of the Bill that we agreed on. You are the one who will disappoint me if you take a wrong version of the Bill. The Bill that we agreed on is what we have tabled here. If you have doubt, you can check with the HANSARD and it will help you see the correct version of the Bill that we agreed on. Finally, there is something I want to speak to. I know I have spoken about it previously, but I still want to talk about it. When we were discussing this Bill in the Mediation Committee, and many Kenyans have discussed this in the media and every other place about whether we are just being mean to our counties, I agree that counties need more money beyond even the Kshs378 billion that they are getting. We must also agree that all Government departments, ministries and State agencies need more money, but we do not have that money. The money is 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."
}