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"id": 959489,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
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"content": "is set out to be achieved. For us, it was not just about an amount. Of course, there was an amount that we wanted, but there was also the process. I urge Sen. M. Kajwang’, Sen. Mwaura and Sen. Ochillo-Ayacko to look at the Report. The only beneficiary of this stalemate was the national Government. Right now, there is no pressure on cash flow, because counties are not getting their money. Therefore, the national Government is spending and we are getting our salaries in the Senate. However, the people in the counties have not been receiving their money. This is something that happens every year. Therefore, we have said that the amendment to the Public Finance Management Act, which has already started in the National Assembly, will make sure that at no one time will one level of Government suffer when division of revenue has not been done. That is a gain, because previously that did not exist. It would not have happened if this pressure was not there. Today, a part of the workers of Nairobi City County and possibly a few other counties do not have salaries. Therefore, if we would have refused and stuck to Kshs335 billion while they stick to Kshs316 billion, it would have been an eye for an eye, and we would both lose our sights. The national Government would have gone on operating, while counties would be suffering because they have appropriated. We are in court and the court process is not being expedited, because they do not want to look like they are interfering with the Senate. Who then suffers? It is the people in the counties. We, therefore, said, “Let us agree on whatever amount it is, but let us put in it in this report and in the law.” First, appropriation must be done after division. In the absence of that, when there is a stalemate, it is not that one level of government, whether the national or the county, can draw money when another one is suffering. That is a gain. Madam Temporary Speaker, when we were in the mediation on the MES, they asked for something very simple. Yes, you want this; but where is the report from the Senate? There is no report. Where is the report showing the audit we had done and the issues around the MES? We do not have a report. It was quite embarrassing to say that we had discussed it at plenary. It is a pity that to date, there is no report on the audit, prudence and fiscal issues to do with MES to us from the Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC), or the Committee on Health. The Committee on Devolved Government and Intergovernmental Relations has not issued a report for us to know whether the Controller of Budget has authority to disburse money for a devolved function to be performed by the national Government. Therefore, it is us who were being insincere with ourselves. However, we have agreed that before the next division of revenue is done, that ad hoc Committee must have given its report."
}