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{
    "id": 959320,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/959320/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 90,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 373,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
        "slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move:- THAT, the Senate adopts the Report of the Mediation Committee on the Division of Revenue (No.2) Bill (National Assembly Bills No.59 of 2019) laid on the Table of the Senate on Wednesday, 11th September, 2019 and pursuant to Article 113 of the Constitution and Standing Order No. 161 (3) of the Senate Standing Orders approves the mediated version of the said Bill. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Division of Revenue (No.2) Bill (National Assembly Bills No. 59 of 2019) forms the basis of the shared revenue between the two levels of Government. The Bill was published by the National Assembly with equitable share to the counties of Kshs316.5 billion. It was passed by the National Assembly and forwarded to the Senate which rejected it with amendments and amended that the figure for equitable share to the counties be Kshs335 billion. Also, the managed Medical Equipment Services (MES), of Kshs6.2 billion under conditional grant was amended and removed. In fact, those were the two areas of contention. The Mediation Committee was put in place, according to Article 113 of the Constitution. We had three meetings. In the first meeting, there were no much discussions and the second meeting was this morning. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will be brief because our version was that we increase the county equitable share from Kshs316.5 billion to Kshs335 billion. We also removed the conditional allocation of Kshs 6.2 billion on the MES. There was an increase of allocation to Water Tower Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and the Adoption Programme by Kshs385 million to Kshs880 million. This was the contentious issue. Mr. Speaker, Sir, during the meeting, the Committee observed the following:- (i)That indeed there is urgent need to approve the Division of Revenue Bill 2019 and cause the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2019 to proceed. (ii)That there was no room to finance the increase in the county equitable share of revenue due to fiscal constraint (iii)The Mediation Committee considered the issues raised by both Houses, and consequently, adopted the mediated version of the Bill, which is hereby annexed. Therefore, all matters having been considered and decided by consensus, this report is therefore a unanimous decision of the Committee. (iv)That it was immutable that counties could not prepare their annual budgets as contemplated under Article 224 of the Constitution due to a lacuna in the law that fails to give remedial relief to counties where the Division of Revenue Bill is not passed by Parliament before the end of a financial year. Mr. Speaker, Sir, upon reaching consensus, the Committee therefore recommends the following: (1) That this House to approve the Bill as follows: (i) That the County Equitable Share allocation for Financial Year 2019/2020 be Kshs316.5 billion. (ii) That the allocation to the leasing of MES for financial year 2019/2020 of Kshs6.2 billion, be approved subject to the following:- The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}