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{
"id": 1626302,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626302/?format=api",
"text_counter": 274,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": ". It is money that we must pay back. I want to request you after you leave here, you are one of the senior lawyers in this country, try and write to the World Bank and request them and even other donors to tell us what is happening. They will never respond because they are now a conduit of corruption. That is why I agree with Donald Trump 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": 1626303,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626303/?format=api",
"text_counter": 275,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "when he disbanded USAID. This is because they cannot and they do not want to account to anybody. They only do training and sensitization. About 20 per cent of the money is for chai and mandazi as they are training community patrons. I want to challenge the Committee on Finance and Budget Committee and the CPAC to come out strongly on this matter. With those many remarks, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support."
},
{
"id": 1626304,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626304/?format=api",
"text_counter": 276,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. We are progressing well as a Senate. I appreciate that even as I rise to speak, I support this Bill before us, the County Governments Additional Allocation Bill. This Bill comes in the backdrop of the Division of Revenue Bill, which we recently passed to allocate funds between the national Government and county governments. I had the pleasure of being part of the team that mediated on the Division of Revenue Bill, where we passed through the vertical share of revenue between the national Government and the county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you know very well this is the substantive and mainstream budgetary Bill that we pass in this House basically to look at the monies that are going to the counties. From that Bill alone, we managed, as a House, to increase the allocation to the counties. Initially, it had been proposed that county governments be given Kshs387 billion last year which is what they got. The national Government had proposed to give them Kshs405 billion, but we managed as a House to push the figure to Kshs415 billion as a mainstay legislation that gives counties money. It should be noted by the public that this is a follow-up to that. Article 202(2) of the Constitution anticipated a situation where that mainstay documentation of sharing revenue; we could share revenue between the national Government and county governments and then perhaps there could be more money required to do more functions. These functions could be affected in two ways. First, under Schedule Four where functions have been assigned to counties, but there is less money following them. This is a battle we have been fighting in this House, especially because most of these functions are naturally not costed. We need to cost these functions to make sure that we have got the right metrics and calculus to ensure both national Government and county government functions are run with the right amount of money that they need. Under Article 187 of the Constitution, there is also a possibility that county governments might get additional responsibilities delegated by the national Government to be able to undertake those functions that the national Government is supposed to do. For instance, at the beginning of our term, the President made a pronouncement around the issue of building industrial parks in all 47 counties to stimulate economic growth; that each county should have an industrial park. An industrial park is not something that is explicitly a function of county governments. It is something that the national Government, through its agenda, was thinking of introducing and, therefore, came up with this idea that counties can contribute and the national Government can also contribute. That is a pseudo-allocation of functions to county governments. What ended up happening is that Article 187 is, therefore, evoked by that presidential pronouncement that then brings counties to do something like that. 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": 1626305,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626305/?format=api",
"text_counter": 277,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Therefore, you end up having those functions going back to counties and money must then follow it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a Bill that then would allow the national Government to add additional resources to counties in areas such as those. We have seen many instances where legislation gives the burden of concurrence between the national Government and county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we were in Turkana for Senate Mashinani, we passed a Bill in both Houses of Parliament on CHPs. That Act of Parliament ended up creating Column B in the Second Schedule of that Act, which required that county governments should have a 50 percent share with the national Government. The national Government contributes to the stipend of the community healthcare promoters and county governments will contribute 50 percent. This is an area which necessitated the idea of having additional allocations. Remember also, we had conditional allocations for the construction of county headquarters. Again, this is a function the national Government had committed to. By last year, we had committed 18 counties. My county of Migori has received over Kshs111 million which we fought for in the last two years in order to get those funds. I had talked about County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) which programme is set in Column D of the Second Schedule of this Bill. That said, we know that apart from the dictates of Article 202(2) of the Constitution that requires that the national Government can put additional resources in its budget, and we also have additional funds allocated from proceeds of loans of grants that come from other countries. Among them is what Sen. Cherarkey has talked about, which include the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is a business development programme supported by those proceeds from loans and grants from our international partners, donors and sometimes, multi-lateral agencies. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have those that come from the World Bank like FLLoCA by the Climate Institute support programmes that we have as well as other finances we get from our international partners. They also form the bulk of the monies we have put in this Bill and they are important. We also have unconditional grants which are also part of additional grants that we are passing in this Bill. They are two and one of them is the proceeds that come from the court fines, emanating from the contravention of county governments legislations. When county governments set the national Government to collect these fines on their behalf, it goes without saying that those proceeds must be channeled back to those counties. Again, that is an agency arrangement we have and in a routine manner. That routine allows for those monies to be ploughed back to the counties that have such an arrangement with the national Government. However, some courts do not have such arrangements with county governments or they do not have courts that have those fines within their precedence. Also in some cases, legislation might be lacking in those counties that might not be featured in Column A of this Bill. There are unconditional allocations that go to beneficiary counties with regard to mineral royalties. This is an arrangement well stipulated under Section 183 of the Mining Act, read together with the Regulations that were established as articulated in Column B 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": 1626306,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626306/?format=api",
"text_counter": 278,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "in the First Schedule. Those royalties have three categories. There are those supposed to remain in the community. In this Bill, there is 20 per cent that is supposed to go to the county government and 70 per cent to the national Government."
},
{
"id": 1626307,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626307/?format=api",
"text_counter": 279,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "With that, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to appreciate the tenacity and effort that has been put by the Committee on Finance and Budget in terms of scrutinizing what was forwarded by the National Assembly because those particular additional allocations to county governments in those four different categories that have mentioned have been well articulated. This is one of the efforts that is a fundamental duty of this Senate in terms of making sure that counties do get enough and adequate resources to carry out their functions and provide services and opportunities to our people at the county level. In fact, by passing this Bill in this House today or next week, if the debate today does not allow for division, we will unlock a lot of money to Migori County. There are additional unconditional allocations that I have talked about that will go to Migori County Government. On court fines alone, the money that will go to Migori County is about Kshs974,000. Migori County is the bedrock of serious mining activities. If you go to Macalder Mines in Nyatike Constituency and Masara, which partly lies in Nyatike Constituency, the mining activities goes on all the way to Suna West Constituency. You will be impressed by the amount of gold that comes from Migori County. If you go to Rongo Constituency, there are serious deposits of alluvial gold there. Recently we realised that there are a lot of gold deposits at a place called Kehancha in Kuria West. Currently artisanal mining is predominant in that area which is facing a lot of challenges in terms of revenue to people who matter. That is young people, women and men who are always in those mines trying to make a living out of that. Royalties do come from those places. It is only important that those royalties that come from organisations that do mining in Migori go back to our county to serve our people. In this Bill that we will pass, it will interest the people of Migori to know that under additional unconditional allocations for minerals, 20 per cent that will go to Migori County is a whopping Kshs3.125 million. That is very important to announce to the people of Migori because we as the people of Migori must and should always have a way of benefiting from the mineral royalties. The total amount that will be sent there in terms of additional unconditional allocations to what we had given Migori County in the main vertical revenue share of about Kshs9 billion is another Kshs3.6 million that constitutes court fines and mineral royalties. Further to that, it is important that the people of Migori also take note that apart from court fines and mineral royalties, there are additional conditional allocations from the national Government’s share that will go to Migori County. I hope that the County Government will use those monies prudently. One of them goes towards the arrears of county healthcare workers. This was a big issue that made me to be thrown out of Senate for the first time. I was fighting for the healthcare workers. My argument was that the national Government cannot take the payroll of healthcare workers to county 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": 1626308,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626308/?format=api",
"text_counter": 280,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "governments and not follow it with adequate resources to make them perform their functions. It is here today, in this Bill, that we are sending Kshs27 million to Migori County to pay county healthcare workers. It is important that the people of Migori County take note that the effort of fighting for healthcare workers was not in vain. If we pass this Bill as it is, Migori County will get Kshs27,687,815. I think that is very important. We also have community health promoters who have been crying in Migori County that they have not gotten money. We are sending Kshs88.38 million towards community healthcare workers. The total conditional allocation that we are sending to Migori County when we pass this Bill is about Kshs116 million. It is important. I encourage Senators to also look into their respective counties. I know Sen. M. Kajwang’ is in the House and we are sending a lot of money to Homa Bay County through his effort. I can also see Sen. Mungatana and many other good Senators who are in the House right now. The Senator for Busia County is also here. We are sending serious additional money to our counties by passing this Bill. That is the most critical work that we have in this House: sending money to counties. Hopefully our governors will take note and make prudence use of the money that we are sending to them. It is also important to note that we are sending a further Kshs292 million to Migori County for a variety of functions that are in the category of loans and grants from World Bank to do specific programs. For instance, we are sending money to Migori County for a programme called the Aquaculture Business Development Project. Migori County falls under Blue Economy region. The President, the former Prime Minister, Raila Amollo Odinga and the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs spent some time before Madaraka Day to pump money in the blue economy. Now, we, as Senators, through this Bill, will send Kshs12 million to Migori County. That money is to go and support the blue economy and aquaculture."
},
{
"id": 1626309,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626309/?format=api",
"text_counter": 281,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "There is also the Kenya Development Support Programme (KDSP). This is mostly for urban initiatives and we are sending Kshs37 million to Migori County. We also have the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP). This is very important to me. I believe that we will create opportunities for young people when we build cottage industries in the agriculture space. We are sending the County Government of Migori Kshs231 million to start building the cottage industries, which will enable proper value chain industry in the agricultural sector in Migori County. Primary health care has been affected by a number of issues, including lack of medicine. It is sometimes difficult to get Panadol or even Aspirin in our hospitals. Medicine has been a very big problem. We are sending to Migori County Kshs10 million. Therefore, a total of Kshs292 million is going to Migori County."
},
{
"id": 1626310,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626310/?format=api",
"text_counter": 282,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I want to thank Senators for this effort. It is their effort that has made it possible for this money to go to Migori County. I want to make sure that as a---"
},
{
"id": 1626311,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626311/?format=api",
"text_counter": 283,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Oketch Gicheru, your time is up. Proceed, Sen. Nyamu."
}
]
}