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{
    "id": 961983,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/961983/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "comes from and ingredients. All these things were talked about. However, no House has the authority to bake cakes here. In fact, the cake is made by Kenyans, of which we are all members. We know how taxes are raised in this country and nobody should arrogate himself or herself that, that is actually their mandate. The people of Kenya gave us the Constitution of Kenya 2010. The Constitution has a bicameral House. Many issues were raised regarding Article 95(4) on the role of National Assembly. In fact, they read that Article 95(4) (a) that the Assembly determines the allocation of national revenue between the levels of Government as provided in Part 4 of Chapter 12. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Article 96 of the Constitution says that the Senate represents the counties and serves to protect the interest of counties and their governments. You cannot protect the interest of counties and their governments without taking part in the revenue sharing process. The National Assembly should not be telling us that it is their sole mandate to originate the Bill. The argument they were making was that they can determine what goes on between the two levels of Government and just give us to deal with County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) and nothing else. That is a fallacy and it cannot work. Article 218 of the Constitution provides that the Bill can be introduced in Parliament and Parliament has two Houses. Article 110 of the Constitution tells us what a Bill that concerns counties is. Article 114 that they are happy to quote exempts any Bill under Article 218 from that provision. The issue of the Division of Revenue Bill is the beginning of a budget process. The Budget Policy Statement is the first budget document that comes before Parliament. It is only after you have divided the money between the two levels of Government that the two levels of government can then start distributing the funds that they have. One cannot purport to proceed with the national Budget when Division of Revenue Act (DORA) has not been put in place. Our sister House should respect the Constitution and the people entrusted with the law, especially those serving in the Attorney-General’s Office, should also respect this law. The Head of State should not be allowed to sign laws that are illegal. I will not go far on that because the matter is in court. The Bill before us proposes to allocate Kshs316 billion to the counties. When you ask the Members of the National Assembly to add more money, they will ask you where you intend to get the rest of the money. When dealing with the issue of Revenue Bill, you look at the revenues that are going to be raised nationally and you apportion that between the two levels of Government. Thereafter, you can start making the budget for national Government. The Members the National Assembly will tell you that they have already drawn a budget which is not legal as per the Constitution. When they Read the Bill for the First Time and were open for debate, my Committee met and said that we were going to make an amendment to get a figure of Kshs327 billion, which was reached during mediation. We worked in good faith. Now that they are not working in good faith, I propose that we go to the original Bill which had Kshs335 billion for the counties. That is the Bill that we should take to them. We also removed managed equipment services from the Bill. In fact, we were willing to 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."
}