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{
    "id": 989192,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/989192/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 308,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to remind the Leader of the Majority Party, the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the leadership of the House generally that, last week, we passed the Division of Revenue Bill with the amendments from the Senate. In that Bill, we agreed that the money moves to the county fund and then to each county. From there, it is when the Nairobi Metropolitan Services is supposed to get its money. That is exactly what we passed. Therefore, I am trying to remind the leadership that we need to check this again. The Supplementary Appropriations Bill is bringing back Ksh1.65 billion for purposes of Nairobi Metropolitan Services whereas in the Report that we passed, it was Ksh3.7 billion. This needs to be checked and harmonized so that we can be sure that now, the Nairobi Metropolitan Services can get money directly from the Exchequer or the National Treasury without its money necessarily going to Nairobi County. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Supplementary Appropriations Bill is basically “a 'Covid-19 supplementary”. We need to check what amount of 'Covid-19' is in that Supplementary Budget. This is the biggest problem that we need to face. If you look at it critically, you will realize that, that is not it. But there are portions and percentages that go towards Covid-19 of about Kshs10 billion to Ksh40 billion. However, I want to remind the House and the nation that there is reason for collecting data, and conducting census. Right now, we know that Kenya has a population of 45 million people. We are also aware that Nairobi has a population of 4 million people. From that data, we are also aware that about 60 per cent of Kenyans live below a dollar a day. So, when we are distributing resources that we have - whether in the name of Covid-19 or anything else - where is the 60 percent? At the moment, for example, the President has directed that Kshs8 million should go to Nairobi. Therefore, if 60 per cent of 45 million people are poor Kenyans, it means that there are 27 million of them. If you took it that the entire population in Nairobi County of 4 million people is poor, then you take away the 4 million people from the country's 27 million poor, you will be left with 23 million people. So, the 23 million Kenyans are poor. Why target 4 million Kenyans and leave out 23 million? There are hard questions that we must ask. There are some 23 million Kenyans elsewhere. Our data indicates that they are poor and vulnerable. The data also indicates exactly where they are. The Kenya Bureau of Statistics knows exactly where they are. They even know where what we call the poverty pockets are. Even if Limuru is the richest area, they know where the poverty pockets in Limuru are. Why are we are not using that data such that my Bondo poor and vulnerable can get a percentage and portion of this money? I also wanted to raise the issue of accounting and oversight. There are those departments that we oversee because we approve them here. They are overseen by the departmental committees. There are those that are outside and are sometimes bigger than what we have here. How are those resources going out? Every day, the CS for Health gives us an update of cases, new discoveries, number of people in quarantine and all that. Can he also give us data in terms of how the resources are going out for purposes of Covid-19? We need to do this as a nation so that little bits of things that are heard here and there are properly coordinated. As a Member of Parliament, I need to know where the support for Bondo is from the national basket and the well-wishers that have been contributing for purposes of the pandemic. I agree that the virus is concentrated in certain areas. It has been scientifically indicated that Mombasa and Nairobi have challenges. But we need to know how we benefit from those resources. There is a problem. Lastly, we are currently budgeting for Covid-19. In the last Budget, we set monies aside for contingencies and disasters. Where are those monies? There are a lot of things happening. Down at the lake region, the lake is swelling and engulfing large amounts of land. People are losing The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}