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{
"id": 1527732,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527732/?format=api",
"text_counter": 136,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Sen. Eddy. I believe that answers the concern that was raised by Hon. Essy Okenyuri on the whereabouts of the Members of this House."
},
{
"id": 1527733,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527733/?format=api",
"text_counter": 137,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okenyuri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I also thank Sen. Eddy for being compassionate enough. We share the loss with our colleague, Sen. Montet and hopefully, we will be able to join the rest of our colleagues once we are done here. I will look at what we, the Committee recommended. In order to bring services closer to the people, all these constitutional commissions need to have their independent offices decentralized to other counties so that we do not have people travelling long distances to get the services they require. This is so that we serve people because that was the whole essence of devolution. I will not go much into this and I leave for my colleagues to contribute. I therefore support, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir."
},
{
"id": 1527734,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527734/?format=api",
"text_counter": 138,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Mariam Omar Sheikh."
},
{
"id": 1527735,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527735/?format=api",
"text_counter": 139,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mariam Omar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I stand here to support the report from the Committee on Finance and Budget considering I am also a Member of that commmittee. Before I go on, I pass my condolences to baby--- from Kirinyaga and may the Lord put his soul in eternal peace. Firstly, on the benefit of the budget, even if the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning is in that position, he does not know the benefits of a budget. I will highlight benefits of a budget. Budgets improve financial decision making, help in accountability and transparency. If the Cabinet Secretary knew the benefits of a budget like accountability and transparency, he would have come to the Committee to become accountable and transparent with regard to the budget. A budget helps in managing debts and credits and encourages saving. The budget addresses unemployment. On unemployment, there is the value chain which the budget touches on and it has the agricultural side but they have left out the pastoralist communities. On the side of the health sector, there is Kshs29 billion budgeted under the Ministry of Health and yet, they are supposed to be devolution projects supposed to be done by counties. This was taken to the Ministry and I believe the Kshs29 billion must go back to counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other issue is on pending bills. If we had known the importance of a budget – accountability and transparency, we would not have such volumes of pending bills and they are supposed to be a first charge in the budget. When we were interacting with stakeholders, we realized that we called commissions and independent commissions. We had six of them. This was the first time we called The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1527736,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527736/?format=api",
"text_counter": 140,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mariam Omar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "commissions and that showed that the Senate is fighting for its space and that the budget is for the two Houses and not the National Assembly only. I was in the Committee listening to the stakeholders and what came to my attention were the oversight agencies - the Controller of Budget and the office of the Auditor-General. Most of their work is travel and expenses and their work is to go through all the documents of counties and the national Government and because of their travel expenses, their budget was cut. In that scenario, we will need the expenditure of the Auditor-General not to be touched because there is the key mandate of auditors. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Controller of Budget had put their budget at Kshs50 million for automation, but this has not been funded. As a Committee we requested for the Controller of Budget offices to be mandatorily automated so that they can link with the Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning and the Central Bank of Kenya. This kind of a link needs automation and is required so that when it comes to exchequer transactions and approvals, it will not take time. That is what the Auditor-General concluded. The allocation of recurrent expenditure is under the Public Finance Management (PFM). In 2025, the projection is 79,123 from the proposals in the budget. The continuation in the increase in the debts service will also take a huge part of the budget which will be expected to be utilized as development budget. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the county government's debt to Kenya Power amounted to Kshs4.3 billion as of November, 2024. Last week, there was a conflict between the county government and the Kenya Power. When I researched this conflict, I realised that Kenya Power is mistreating counties because it is a monopoly. Kenya Power should not be a monopoly. Energy and lighting are essential to our people. This is a fundamental right of each and every citizen. With those few remarks, I support the report. Thank you."
},
{
"id": 1527737,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527737/?format=api",
"text_counter": 141,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Senator Mariam. Omar. Senator Methu, proceed."
},
{
"id": 1527738,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527738/?format=api",
"text_counter": 142,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13581,
"legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
"slug": "methu-john-muhia"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this particular Motion of the Committee of Finance and Budget, led by an able chairman, Sen. Ali Roba. I have looked at the work that this particular Committee has done, and they have done justice to the 2025/2026 BPS. I want to save some time so that our colleagues can join our colleague, Sen. Betty Montet, who lost her husband, and the memorial service is ongoing. I will go straight to the recommendations, especially the financial recommendations made by the Committee on Finance and Budget. I am happy that most independent offices appeared before the Budget and Finance Committee and expressed their frustrations, especially where they feel that the Senate, and particularly Parliament, should support them so that they become better at the work that has been apportioned to them. I will start with the Office of the Auditor-General. Although we draw a mandate from Article 96 of the Constitution of Kenya and say that we are the body tasked with The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1527739,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527739/?format=api",
"text_counter": 143,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13581,
"legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
"slug": "methu-john-muhia"
},
"content": "matters of oversight, as a person who has sat on a watchdog committee, I largely depend on the recommendations and work that the Auditor-General does. If these offices are not well resourced—you know, I heard some people threatening the Auditor-General that if she continues unearthing the things she is on Social Health Authority (SHA) and other Government projects, they will reduce her funding in Parliament. This is a retrogressive statement. It claws back into the gains that we have made in terms of our financial prudence. As Sen. Eddy and I, or any other Senator sitting in any Committee, we just take recommendations raw as they come from the office of the Auditor-General. We may want to play oversight, but do we have the tools as a House? Do we have the expertise? We are just struggling with the oversight fund. We are struggling with the officers who will help us in our oversight offices in the counties. The people who can help us because they have the expertise, knowledge, and continuous training on this particular matter would be the office of the Auditor-General. I am encouraged that the Committee has proposed that they add the office of the Auditor-General Kshs181 million so that they can hire even more and employ as much expertise as is required. What is Kshs181 million in a budget of Kshs4 trillion? This is an addition to protect resources. There are some people whose hands and fingers itch every time they see public resources. Every time they hear public resources anywhere, be it in the national Government or the county government, their fingers itch. Unless you put a good and strong watchman, they will continue plundering our resources. I encourage the Committee of Sen. Ali Roba to continue funding and listening to these independent offices. They are our last line of defence. When occasionally Parliament does not step up on such matters out of our political inclination, sometimes, the independent offices always step up. On this particular issue of SHA, had the Auditor- General not come out, you would not have expected that that truth would come from Parliament, the Ministry or the President. So, we must continuously fund the office of the Controller of Budget. The other office that has been funded is the Controller of Budget. Twice, we met the Controller of Budget as a Committee member of this House. In your county, Bomet, for example, I do not know what the pending bill would be or what the pending bills were in 2022 when your governor came in. The reason you hear that when he came in, the pending bills were Kshs700 million, and right now, they are either at Kshs700 million or are growing because they never pay these pending bills. What they do, and a colleague has aptly put it, is that they will make a requisition that we want to go and pay company X because they supplied goods X and presented the documents. The payment process for the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) is 13 or 14 steps. They will upload all your documents to make that requisition, from procurement to step No. 12, which is called validation. Step No.13 is Internet banking one, and step No.14 is Internet banking two. Once that requisition comes to the Control of Budget, they will just look and see. The agreement is that every requisition must include a portion for pending bills. However, once that money has hit the county revenue fund, they do a mischievous thing that they call voiding. They void that transaction. The money meant to pay Kamau ends up paying Omondi. The money meant to pay Company Y ends up paying Company Z. Company Y's documents will continue to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1527740,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527740/?format=api",
"text_counter": 144,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13581,
"legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
"slug": "methu-john-muhia"
},
"content": "be used to draw money from the consolidated fund and confuse the Controller of Budget if we do not resource this office so that we can get a system that the Controller of Budget can trace this money. That the money went straight to the County Revenue Fund, and that money was used for the specific reason why the money was requested, or the requisition was made for. Maybe you may know or not that the way our Constitution has been made, we are not deficient in the rules that we have. One of the requirements that we have is that the development budget for every county or even the national Government, must be at least 30 per cent of the entire budget. People will make a requisition and say that they are using the money for development. Once that money hits the County Revenue Fund, it is voided and used for recurrent expenditure. We cannot stop this vice unless the Controller of Budget has a view of how this money is moving from the Consolidated Fund to the County Revenue Fund to the specific account of requisition. If it is X who requested it, that money must end up there. I do not want to buttress that point, but it is extremely important. I have seen a proposal to add some money to the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). More specifically, I have seen that they want to try to develop a formula and a system that will help---"
},
{
"id": 1527741,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527741/?format=api",
"text_counter": 145,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Methu, there is a point of order from Sen. Ali Roba. Resume your seat."
}
]
}