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{
    "id": 959128,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/959128/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 506,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Patrick Musimba",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1804,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Mweu Musimba",
        "slug": "patrick-mweu-musimba"
    },
    "content": "Article 223 gives the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury the discretion while this House is not in session to make expenditures to cover gaps. The people we are dealing with are the people of the Republic of Kenya who enacted this Constitution and gave us to be custodians for their livelihoods. You cannot affect the very nature of the going concern or aspirations of these people. In the case, you heard the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury passing the buck saying he needs an advisory opinion from the Attorney General and when it goes to the Attorney General, he says it should be returned to Parliament. In the meantime, we are staring at a life-threatening crisis. It left the President in a position to say there was money. Who has authority to say they have no money other than the President of the Republic of Kenya? He is holding forte. He took an oath of office to ensure that there is preservation of the people. In this regard, this is where sobriety takes place. We are elected as leaders not to totally agree with each other’s opinion, but to know that at the point our opinions or strong feelings, which are certainly for the betterment of the nation, come to be at conflict, we need to rise up and know that there is still a nation to run. There are still children who need to go to the ECD. There are firms which need to move and artificial insemination (AI) programmes to run. There are agricultural services among our populace. The PFM (Amendment) Bill is a very good initiative in terms of addressing the bare minimums which are there. We agree that in Article 222, we allow the central Government to draw at least 50 per cent upon the Appropriations Bill awaiting the passage of substantive law which is the Appropriations Act, so that services do not grind to a halt. They should know that they have at least six months to continually run the programmes. Whereas we heard from the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) that we want to deal with a nominal sum of 15 per cent, I think we need to move further and be in congruence with the Constitution which says that 50 per cent is the threshold. They should not only address issues to do with salary payments but also, at least, ensure services which had been procured at the bedrock of our counties continue. We do not want anxiety in terms of suppliers. We know the people who supply goods to the counties are mostly SMEs. Their ability to cushion themselves from borrowings from banks is not the same as people who are supplying the central Government. Most of the time, the people at the central Government are big time multinational corporations, which accrue or attract credit from lines abroad. Even if they are local, the banks look at them favourably. When the case is about micro finance institutions (MFIs) or Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOs), and this is the mainstay of SMEs’ access to capital to offer the services, they are always subjected to imminent pressure."
}