Prof. Sam Ongeri

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 551 to 560 of 1925.

• 19 May 2020 in Senate: Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. The bottom-line of this Statement by Sen. (Dr.) Mwaura is putting food on the table. We are in a crisis today. There have been massive lay-offs, people are not working in their industries and micro enterprises are collapsing. People are not tilling their lands for food production. It has become very difficult for our people to accessing certain facilities, particularly loans from banks. There is a total crunch down. We must find a way of helping our people to make their ends meet. I get very distressed, for example, in the evening when I leave ... view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: for a good Samaritan to give them some money to go and buy food for their families. The situation is very pathetic. I get a number of telephone calls from my county, constituency and my home area from people crying for food. When I tell them that at least they have access to some vegetables and bananas from the garden, they tell me nothing is forthcoming from there. They are not able to buy Sukuma wiki for their survival. Madam Temporary Speaker, what does that tell you? It is an indication that the social fabric of this country is about ... view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to also add my voice and congratulate Senior Counsel, Sen. Omogeni. We are privileged to have senior counsel in this Senate Chamber. That in itself qualifies this House to be the Upper House. We have the people who can argue out our case very well. The Constitution recognizes that there shall be two types of government; that is the national Government and the county governments. Once you have a Government in place, it is expected to have resources to run all the functions that are required to be run either ... view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: This has been the thorn in the flesh that has now culminated in the Supreme Court giving us an important advisory opinion that will lead us to the future. view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: I want to tag on the earliest Statement made by Sen. M. Kajwang’. We are arguing about resources and revenue raising measures that will give any national Government the necessary resources to be divided between it and the county governments. We cannot appropriate the resources without knowing how they will be divided between the two levels of Government. This has been the thorn in the flesh. Therefore, the advisory opinion has helped us to confirm and reaffirm that the Division of Revenue Act is important. There cannot be an Appropriation Bill in the National Assembly without determining the position of ... view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: One of the biggest headaches has been that while we were still arguing about the Division of Revenue Act, the national Government was already appropriating money on the vote on account up to 31st December. However, the county governments were miserably running up and down and putting pressure on us to accept and go through other shortcuts, to accept the formula for them to access the money to run the counties. I do not know whether I heard Sen. Omogeni right, that this advisory opinion has determined that while the Division of Revenue Act is going on, county governments can ... view
• 19 May 2020 in Senate: because our county governments cannot be put under pressure while we are still arguing about whether or not we have agreed. Madam Temporary Speaker, now that we have the tools in our hands, how do we institutionalize? The advisory opinion is good enough. However, we must reach a level where we can institutionalize it into a legal framework or regulation on how these things must be done. Again, I urge our legal minds in the Senate and the Directorate of Legal Services to sit down and quickly draft a Bill to come before this House, so that we can institutionalize ... view
• 5 May 2020 in Senate: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. This Petition has come at the right time and is a developing story because you must balance the revenue and expenditure aspect of the county governments. This is because you cannot spend what you do not have. You can also not spend if you have not put it in the development plan and budget, and if the county assembly has not approved these resources for that particular element of the expenditure that requires to be spent. If you carefully read the County Governments Act, it enumerates the steps that must be taken ... view
• 5 May 2020 in Senate: I thank you. view
• 5 May 2020 in Senate: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I thank the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries for bringing us this brief report. The esteemed Chairperson knows very well that at one time, those of us when he brought up the coffee rehabilitation programme, the rules that need to apply to coffee, we went to every county. I remember the Chairperson, Sen. Ndwiga, travelling to Kisii and Nyamira counties. He went to the western part of Kenya, Kericho, Nandi, Vihiga, Kakamega, and Bungoma counties. It was quite clear. There was a rare hope that for once the coffee industry would ... view