Wednesday, 5th June 2024

Hon. Members, there is no quorum. I direct that the Quorum Bell be rung for 10 minutes.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to lay the following Papers on the Table:

Hon. Amina, do you have a request for statement?

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I rise pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 44 (2) (c) to request for a Statement from the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Lands regarding the status of processing of title deeds for squatters residing in Msabaha Sub-Location within Malindi Constituency.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, the issue of land settlement in the coastal region has been a protracted matter among the communities in the region, revolving around questions of ownership and residency. In 2022, the Government took significant steps by acquiring land from the Mazrui community with the aim of resettling squatters from Msabaha region in Malindi Constituency, and to resolve the endemic land matters in the region. Indeed, the identification process for the squatters was conducted and concluded in 2022. However, despite these strides, the residents of Msabaha find themselves in an uncomfortable predicament, lacking the crucial title documents affirming their occupancy rights. Moreover, a definite timeline for the completion of the resettlement programme has not been provided further exacerbating concerns by the residents.

It is against this background that I request for a Statement from the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Lands on the following:

I do not see any other Statement request. We may proceed. Chairman, Departmental Committee on Lands.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. The Chairman is not around but I am in the Departmental Committee on Lands. We undertake to give a response in two weeks’ time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Let us proceed to the next order.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion:

THAT, this House resolves to exempt the business appearing as Orders No.15 and 16 in today’s Order Paper from the provisions of Standing Order 40 (3) , being a Wednesday Morning, a day allocated for Business not sponsored by the Majority or Minority Party or Business sponsored by a Committee.

I ask Hon. (Dr) Pukose to second.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to second that this House resolves to exempt the business appearing as Orders No.15 and 16 in today’s Order Paper from the provisions of Standing Order 40 (3) , being a Wednesday Morning, a day allocated for Business not sponsored by the Majority or Minority Party or Business sponsored by a committee. This is to allow the House to prosecute very urgent matters.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

Put the Question! Put the Question!

The mood of the House is that I should put the Question.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion:

THAT, pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 30 (3) (c) , this House resolves to hold a morning sitting on Thursday, 6th June 2024, commencing at 9.30 a.m. for purposes of considering priority budget-related business. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have a very short sitting session this month that commenced yesterday and will lapse on 5th July 2024, but we have several businesses to transact. It is, therefore, prudent for us to hold a morning sitting tomorrow, Thursday, 6th June 2024 to fast- track budget-related and other business before we go for the short recess on 5th July 2024. I request Hon. Eric Wamumbi to second.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to second that we hold a morning sitting on Thursday, 6th June 2024. Thank you.

Put the Question! Put the Question!

(Senate Bill No.25 of 2023)

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion:

THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Budget and Appropriations

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the US Dollar is about Ksh130. The interest rates also, globally and locally, are beginning to respond to the macro-improvement in the macro parameters. In that respect, interest rates form the huge bulk of CFS. It is, therefore, important that we align the current realities of the payment of interest rates in regard to the current dynamics. This is an appreciation in the Kenya shillings and other favourable dynamics in the money market, and especially in terms of the exchange rate. It is important that we make the Second Supplementary Estimates, so that our payment of interest rates could take care of the gain in terms of our local currency and the other dynamics around the interest rates.

Having said that, there are also some other sectors that we have deemed important for enhancement even as we come to the close of the financial year. One of these areas is education. In the Second Supplementary Estimates, Higher Education will gain Ksh4 billion. This is majorly Appropriations-in-Aid (A-in-A) because our universities have collected much more than was projected at the beginning of the financial year. This is something we may need a discussion on. Every time we are in a budget cycle like now, there are a lot of incentives for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to budget for A-in-A that is much less than what they usually collect. This is an area we may also need to talk about. We have put it in our recommendations, especially for the main budget.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, another area that has an increment is the security sector. This is based on the realities of our country. We have added more money to the National Police Service (NPS) and to all the other security agencies. It is important that we capacitate them even as we close the year, and especially to take care of money that has already been spent under Article 223 of the Constitution.

The other thing that is important for Members to note in the Second Supplementary Estimates is that we have added Ksh4 billion for fertiliser subsidy. Agriculture is the backbone of our country. However much we make policies to move towards having agriculture to account for much less in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the reality is that we are still there. The reality is that Kenya is more agrarian than industrial. In that respect, we have seen a lot of results in the fertiliser subsidy programme that we have been running in the previous months. Even as we move through seasons, it is important to have enough fertiliser for farmers. We capacitate them to produce more, and also make agriculture a favourable and profitable business, especially by subsidising inputs.

There are some arrears that were left out in the last budget cycle insofar as paying sugarcane farmers is concerned, and especially those who had supplied sugarcane in public sugar factories. We have also input that balance in this Supplementary Budget, so that the sugar farmers of this country can get their dues, especially the arrears that are due to them.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I will highlight the last two points, so that other Members can also get a chance to contribute. When it rains in Kenya, we get blessings in many respects. However, in the recent rains, we had to expend public resources to mitigate the damage caused by the El-Nino. I want to assure Hon. Members that we have also incorporated the expenditure—both under Article 223 of the Constitution and requirements for the remaining part of the financial year—in these Supplementary Estimates, so that we can support the victims of the floods. In that, I want to make it very clear that the Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations and this House had some proposals. This is because the livelihoods of the victims who were affected by these calamities were destroyed.

I got a chance and I went to Naivasha, Mathioya and Murang’a, where we had massive landslides and floods. I have also been to Tana River and I saw the kind of havoc the victims of the floods and excessive rains are going through. Our proposal in terms of allocation is that besides the Government giving food ratios to the affected, it must move forward and resettle these people to more favourable land.

In Naivasha where there was a landslide, the affected families cannot go back to their previous homespun. It behoves the Government to assist its people in those kinds of situations. That is why in consultation with the Executive, we have made provision of money to be used for the resettlement of the people who were affected by the floods and the excessive rains so that they can get comfort by not being resettled back in areas that are impossible to live in.

Kenya practice agriculture that is rain-fed. That means that our livestock get the adequate food that is sufficient to produce more milk and thus, we usually have a glut. That is the reason we have given the New Kenya Co-operative Creameries some resources for mopping-up of milk during this time of overproduction. We have given it money in two ways: One, for mopping-out the excess raw milk and two, for modernisation of its factories so that it can start producing powdered milk effectively, and in a manner that is cost-effective. The current machinery and technology that they have and deploy in terms of making powdered milk, is not efficient. It, therefore, ends up producing milk that becomes uncompetitive comparative to other milk producing countries. We have done that because we know that we need to support our farmers who deal with milk, sugar, coffee and tea farmers as reflected in the estimates.

Many times, people confuse Parliament with Members of Parliament. Parliament is an institution and the cornerstone of democracy. In terms of the rule of law of a modern State, the rule of law and democracy is important. An efficient bureaucracy is also important. Looking at Parliament, there have been arrears for the drivers and bodyguards who work in Parliament. From the month of January, they have not been paid. I want to confirm that we have put in enough resources to pay them. In that respect, I request the National Treasury to expedite releasing the Ex-chequer that we have added for the arrears of the bodyguards and drivers. These are people who have needs and families to take care of, thus the more the reason to be paid. Just like any other civil servant, we have put-in the arrears for the bodyguards and drivers so that they can get their dues in order to go about their business in an efficient manner.

Having made those points, I beg to move and request the Leader of the Majority Party to second.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Allow me to first thank the Chairman and the Members of the Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations and all the chairpersons for the very good work they have done over the working recess.

Some of us had time to retreat to our constituencies, but many of our departmental committee Members, their chairpersons, Members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Departmental Committee on Finance and Planning have had a very busy working recess as they considered both the Supplementary Budget, the annual estimates and the ongoing Finance Bill engagements over the recess period. I take this opportunity to thank them for the great work that they have done.

As I second, I re-emphasise the need for the National Treasury to ensure that this Supplementary Budget as we have emphasised before is passed. Hon. John Mbadi, who is a ranking Member of the Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations will tell you that over the years, this House has called on the National Treasury to limit the Supplementary Budgets to at least one, within a financial year. This is so that whatever you plan from your Budget Policy Statement (BPS) right to the annual estimates will only be revised once. Otherwise, the business of having to do budgetary revisions twice or thrice in a year is not a very good budgetary practice. It speaks volumes to the level of preparedness that we have when we are preparing our budgets. In a way, it creates uncertainty with the implementing agencies in Government as to whether you will have adequate resources to implement all the programmes

that have been budgeted for you within a certain financial year, since you do not know whether the said money is subject to review.

Appreciating the challenges that we have had with liquidity or the raising of revenues in the country, it is only fair that the National Treasury and those who are planning do so with a lot of prudence to ensure that the revenues we project are as realistic as possible and as close to what the reality is as possible.

We must also call on the Kenya Revenue Authority to pull up their socks to make sure that we are collecting adequate revenues to ensure that we do not keep revising our budgets through these supplementary budgets.

I, however, note some good progress. As Members, we have spoken at length about how transparent our budgeting process is. I must commend the Budget and Appropriations Committee because this time round they have been very transparent in attaching the Schedules from Page 757 all the way from the First to the Fourth Schedule, including the changes that have been made. This is very good because it allows Members to interrogate the changes that have been made by the Budget and Appropriations Committee. This is so that we avoid the temptation that I have always seen over the years of blaming the Budget and Appropriations Committee Members that they have reallocated money without the knowledge of the House. I have also seen Members accusing each other, and I am part of the Members who have been on the receiving end.

The other day, I saw the Member for Yatta Constituency ignorantly speaking on television claiming that money that had been allocated to Kiambu County was diverted to Kikuyu Constituency, and I wondered. This is a Member who sits in this House, budgets and appropriates, and is always in this House. Where was he when that money was being reallocated? It is not possible for one Member of this House to reallocate resources from one constituency to another. These changes are usually in these Schedules. I thank the Chairman of the Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations because of the disclosures that he is making, so that even as we speak on television stations, we do not exhibit our ignorance of the budgeting process.

It is good that every new Member of Parliament is taken through the budgeting process of this House. From the Schedules, I was looking at the induction of this House, and we had at least three-and-a-half hours of the induction programme. I encourage the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to keep educating Members. Speak and engage them on the budgeting process, even through committees, so that we speak out there from a point of knowledge. This is not just by riding on things circulated on social media or mentioning other people’s names thinking that that will give you popularity in your village. I saw the Member for Yatta mentioning my name on television. I forgive him because I know he has to mention my name to remain relevant to his people.

I will move on to these Schedules. The Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee has mentioned a number of critical changes and issues touching on Article 223. Again, we indicated and it has been the position of this House that Article 223 is only for emergency cases. Article 223 is not used to allocate money to the Office of the Leader of the Majority Party for tea. That is not an emergency.

With the emergency of flooding we have faced as a country, it is good more resources are going towards mitigation of the issues right from the money paid to people being moved from riparian reserves within the city and in other areas where people have been asked to move away from rivers and those prone to floods and other dangers. Money has been put to ensure that these people are well compensated.

I am glad and I must thank the Ministry of Interior and National Administration that, for the first time, even as we have seen houses demolished in Nairobi, all the people who are

living there have been compensated. I saw a statement from the Ministry confirming it to ensure they relocate and move away from areas that would subject them to dangers of flooding and all the issues we see with climate change. This is the way to go. You do not just tell people to move out and they do not know where to go to. The small stipend of Ksh10,000 that the people are receiving is helping them to move to new houses because most of them are tenants.

I take this opportunity to appeal to all our private developers that riparian reserves are 30 metres from the river. Please, let us not encroach on our rivers and riparian reserves. When these demolitions come, you also lose as much as many of them may have been warned before. I asked the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, and he has promised that they will allocate money within the next budgeting cycle to ensure that the areas where they are demolishing houses are not re-encroached. They should fence them off, plant trees and the areas remain riparian reserves. As we have been told, we will receive higher than normal rainfall over the next seven years. Therefore, some of these measures are indeed to guard against some of the dangers we have seen.

I have also seen changes in the State Department for Higher Education and Research. I have a particular concern. If you go to the Schedules, a charge of Ksh250 million is going to the Open University of Kenya on recurrent expenditure. I have been informed that is very well justified. There is, however, an increase of Ksh250 million of the Government of Kenya's sponsorship to students in private universities that I completely disagree with.

I was just engaging with the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Education and Research to see indication. We have changed the funding model of university students and how they are sponsored through the Government. There was an increase in the annual estimates of Ksh150 million which was reasonably considered by the Departmental Committee on Education and Research, and agreed. I see the Budget and Appropriations Committee has had another increment from Ksh250 million to a total of Ksh400 million. Therefore, we will be engaging with the Chairmen of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and Departmental

Committee on Education and Research so that we can make the requisite changes as we move

We have seen in the past that supplementary budgets every year have been used by MDAs for a last-minute dash towards procurement. People hide their Appropriations-in-Aid and then move to ensure they are rushing to procure goods and services this last month of the financial year. From experience and those who have been here long enough, especially those who have served in the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Investments Committee, most corruption issues in the Government emanate from things done either towards the end of a financial year or in the run-up to a general election. That is where you will find most corruption cases in the Government and MDAs. I hope the new centralised system of accounting for Appropriations-in-Aid through the eCitizen platform will go a long way in ensuring we curb a vice that has bedeviled our country for long. In the interest of time, let me not say much more.

Finally, again, I thank the Budget and Appropriations Committee, and all our chairmen together with the Members of this House who are serving in the Departmental Committee. I know it was not easy for many of them to leave their constituencies during recess to consider the Supplementary Budget together with the Annual Estimates.

This morning, we moved procedural motions to allow us time to engage on this Supplementary Budget and the Division of Revenue Bill as mediated on. I know the County Allocation of Revenue Bill is also coming. There is also the Equalisation Fund Appropriation Report from the Senate and the Annual Estimates. We hope we will have finalised and finished to allow the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning to come and make his statement next week on Thursday, as was communicated by the Office of the Speaker yesterday afternoon.

Moving forward and next financial year, once we are done with Annual Estimates, I request the National Treasury to let us minimise our Supplementary Budgets to at least one in a year.

With those many remarks, Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to second.

Hon. Members, before I propose the Question, allow me to recognise the presence of Matungulu Boys High School from Kangundo Constituency in Machakos County, who are seated in the Public Gallery. Welcome to the National Assembly.

I also recognise our guests who are seated in the Speaker’s Gallery. They actually joined Catholic Members of Parliament for prayers this morning. They are:

I have seen you, Hon. Melly. I have not said that I am giving you an opportunity. I have simply said that I have seen you because you are waving your hand frantically. There is a difference.

Proceed, Hon. Passaris.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I stand to support the Supplementary Budget as read by the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. But as he prepares the Budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025, they should re-look at the estimates to ensure that we do not over budget. As we can see, there has been a reduction on capital expenditure of over Ksh73 billion. They should not over budget. It is these budgets that inform the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning on the money that they need to raise. Ambitious budgets make us to look for ways to raise money that sometimes pit us against an economy that is struggling and has been dwindling.

We need to put a lot more money under Article 223 of the Constitution to look after citizens that were affected by floods. We need to look at how much money we will allocate, especially here in Nairobi City County. We have seen very many demolitions happening to pave way for Nairobi River projects. We commend the Government for this. We need to sort out the dilapidating state of rivers. We need to safeguard citizens by reclaiming riparian lands, but there is a way to do certain things. We have not followed ethical ways of doing things. If we were to budget well, we would put up structures to ensure there is a humane face when dealing with citizens of Kenya, who look up to us as the Government to provide for them.

I hope that in this Supplementary Budget we will also look into the school-feeding programme for our students. We have a challenge not only in public schools, but also in community-based and faith-based schools. We need to start touching lives. By touching lives, I do not mean with long-term projects. I mean touching lives with short-term, immediate projects. We have been pledging to pay the people whose houses were demolished Ksh10,000. This is mediocre. We are assuming that a person whose house we have demolished lives in a slum and can find a house, pay a deposit and move in with Ksh10,000. We have not realised the emotional damage that we have caused that person.

If I were the President of this country and I wanted to clear out riparian land, the first thing I would have done is to identify the houses to be demolished. Nobody even knows whether it is 30 metres. People just wake up to X markings on their houses, then the houses are demolished. I would have found out how many houses are on riparian land in each region. I would make sure that I know where the displaced people are moving to and not just break their houses and then tell them to move. This has now been left to the chiefs and Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) , who have no idea whose houses they have demolished and who the genuine beneficiaries are. This is because we are disorderly. If the Government is disorderly, then citizens will be disorderly.

If we had identified, budgeted and known that a number of people in a particular slum would be moved, we would have had their names, set aside their money and identified where they would be relocated to. We would give them seven days and sufficient money. We should have given them not less than Ksh50,000 per family. The Ksh10,000 is not enough. We could have also given them the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover. There has to be benefits. Those people found themselves in those riparian lands because we, as the

Government, failed. We failed the citizens. We approved for them to build. They did not just wake up and build. I am tired of a Kenya where people buy land, get title deeds, take loans from banks, then one fine morning we wake up and say that that is an illegality. It is an illegality that we have caused.

How much money are we putting into strengthening the weak structures of this country? Yesterday, I saw Felix Kosgey on television saying that the Government will be zero-tolerant to corruption. There is no way the Government can have zero tolerance to corruption if you have not given money to entities that fight corruption. Have we given them enough money to fight corruption?

Because nothing is cast on stone, I want to see in the Supplementary Budget a provision for more money and food for the citizens that we have aggrieved. I am tired of people looking at Nairobi and thinking it is a rich county. It is not a rich county because of failures of devolution through corruption. We, therefore, need to make sure that we have an equalisation fund for Nairobi. As long as all those counties getting money fail, everybody ends up coming for greener pastures in Nairobi. Nairobi is over congested. I fully support and hope that the Budget and Appropriations Committee can consider the one man-one vote-one shilling policy. We need to make sure that we appropriate budgets that way. This will improve our democracy. If we say one-man-one-vote-one shilling, people will take voting seriously. They will ensure that they register as voters. Right now, there is voter apathy. Eight million voters did not vote. Why? Because they have no confidence in the Government. But when we take resources to the places where they are needed…How can you give Kasarani Constituency, which has over 300,000 people, the same resources you give a constituency with 11,000 people? We are failing.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, as we budget, let us do it according to our pockets and look for ways to raise money. As we look for ways to raise money, let us also remember that we owe a lot of people. I want to know whether we have ensured that we will pay some of the pending bills in the current Supplementary Budget. We have made our citizens poor because we are not paying pending bills.

When I was looking at the South African elections, I saw how the Democratic Alliance Party got very many votes. There will come a time when the Democratic Alliance Party will rule South Africa. There will come a time when an independent candidate will be the President of this country. At the end of the day, people are getting poorer and poorer no matter what we do. How are we going to change that? It starts with budgeting, and we have to have a human touch. The Government might be a building, but the building is run by humans. As leaders, if we go out and ask for votes, let us start touching and saving lives. We should start empowering and enriching our citizens. If it is about tightening the belt, let Parliament start tightening its belt. Every entity needs to tighten its belt so that the citizens of this country can be enriched and empowered.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to speak to the budget. I know many Hon. Members have spoken in support of this Motion, but I want to challenge them. As much as we have the power to budget and appropriate money to the various State departments, we must also take responsibility in ensuring that we support the Kenya Revenue Authority in raising resources to ensure that we have the money to appropriate. The Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro and the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Mbadi, have a responsibility to take care of the resources that we have appropriated by ensuring that they do not lose the money through corruption, misappropriation, carelessness or incompetence by public officers.

I want to give you a few examples. For instance, I know you have appropriated to the Judiciary. As we speak, Hon. Mbadi, many years ago, this Parliament appropriated money to the Judiciary to rent a building called ‘Elgon Place’ in Upper Hill. They refurbished the building at a great cost to the Ex-chequer, but they never occupied the building, ostensibly because they said there was radiation even though the Communications Authority of Kenya and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) confirmed that there was no radiation at that time. In fact, the Kadhis Court is housed at the same place. How do you appropriate more money for courthouses to the same Judiciary that has wasted money for 10 years to this day? It is the responsibility of the Public Accounts Committee to ensure that as we appropriate money under the budget, we are not wasting the same money. If there is a State department that has wasted money, it should not be appropriated more money. As you recall, there was a Judicial Performance Improvement Programme (JPIP) which was funded by the World Bank, the highest amount ever given to a single department in the history of the World Bank. I assigned it myself when I was the Chief Registrar. To this day, they abandoned all the buildings that were supposed to be built with that money. Why are you appropriating money to State departments that have wasted money yet that matter has come before your Committee?

On the issues of collecting revenue, the Kenya Revenue Authority needs Parliament’s support. We have a big challenge in this country. For instance, we have consolidators who bring different types of goods in one container. That is where we lose revenue. Actually, some of the richest people in Kenya have made money through tax evasion. Parliament tried to ensure that consolidation is for logistic purposes and not for tax collection purposes. What happened thereafter? Certain communities began to say that they were attacking their business community and that they were going to lose revenue. It became a community and a tribal issue. What did we do? We rendered the Kenya Revenue Authority impotent. They were not able to collect the revenue. Just to tell you how we lose money under this consolidated system, if I carry a backpack of iPhones into the airport, that is Ksh1.5 million of tax in that backpack. How much more is there in a 20-foot or a 40-foot container?

Parliament is busy appropriating money, but it is not supporting the Kenya Revenue Authority to raise the resources. We know that when many of you want to import something, you bring it through Eastleigh. Right? How much tax are you paying? How is it that they can deliver a car part to you at Ksh15,000? You actually see economies and certain parts of this country being built on tax evasion. As we talk about tax, we must begin to ask ourselves the hard questions.

Another issue that I would like to raise is that we seem to think that the budget process is the responsibility of the Budget and Appropriations Committee yet it is not. It is your responsibility, Hon. Mbadi. For instance, when I am importing a vehicle into this country, I insure it. If my vehicle is worth Ksh4 million, I will insure it for that value. We are required to use international insurance companies, but when I declare the value of that motor vehicle, I say it is worth Ksh1 million. How much tax are we losing there? One of my appeals to Members of Parliament is that we must begin to make it compulsory to insure imported goods with local insurance companies. This way, the Kenya Revenue Authority can question why it has been insured for Ksh4 million yet it is valued at Ksh1 million. If we do that, we will begin to collect revenue. This country is capable of raising Ksh1trillion just by correcting those two items that I have given. I have many others, but there is no time to mention them.

If you look at the issue of ethanol which is causing a lot of challenges with illicit brewing in this country, the tax on a litre of ethanol is about Ksh320 to Ksh350. In Tanzania, it is Ksh40 while in Uganda it is Ksh60. So, what is happening? We are exporting the ethanol directly to either Uganda or Tanzania and thereafter smuggling it into Kenya. If the East African

Community (EAC) does not agree to one tax regime to eliminate that issue, we will continue to lose revenue.

As we discuss the budget, can we also focus on revenue collection? We must learn that it is the responsibility of this House to protect the Commissioner General of KRA. Over the years, whenever there have been proposals to try and collect more revenue, we immediately move into our tribal cocoons because you will hear the people of Eastleigh saying, “oh unamaliza watu wetu, oh you are finishing our people.” At one point, the people of Kirinyaga Road start saying, “oh, the business people from the central communities are being finished.” I recall a few years ago, in the last Parliament, it was shocking when some people came to see me and they said, “please help us.” I asked what the problem was and they said, ‘‘unajua sisi watu wa counterfeit tunamalizwa’’ (we people that trade in counterfeit products are being targeted). I told them they were actually admitting they wanted support to be able to continue with an illegal trade. Parliament must begin to support revenue collection in as much as we so jealously guard our mandate to appropriate budget. I have much more to say, but I know I have to give an opportunity to other Hon. Members to contribute to this Motion.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Hon. Members, join me in welcoming students from Moi Girls Isinya High School in Kajiado East Constituency, Kajiado County; St. Monica Munyaka Girls Secondary School in Kieni Constituency, Nyeri County, and Gaitu Secondary School in Central Imenti Constituency, Meru County. They are all welcome to follow our proceedings this morning.

This chance now goes to the Member for Tharaka, Hon. Gitonga Murugara.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Before I make my presentation…

What is your point of order, Hon. Mbadi? Hon. Murugara, take your seat.

On a point of order, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Hon. Gikaria, what is your point of order?

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I understand that we have already started a very important debate on the Supplementary Budget. However, pursuant to Standing Order 1, I rise to request you to allow us some five minutes to contribute. Hon. John Mbadi is the only person allowed to contribute for more than five minutes because we greatly benefit from his contribution. Once he is done, please allow us five minutes for every Hon. Member so that we can contribute to this important Motion. Not forgetting that...

That is all in order, but you know the drill. Hon. Gikaria, you and I have been here since 28th March 2013. You, therefore, know what you are supposed to do.

Take your seat.

Yes, I understand. I see some Bills…

You know that you should have done it earlier. This should have been done at the beginning of this debate. However, Hon. Members,

I request that when we give you a chance, be fair to others. Try to use as little time as possible so that as many Hon. Members as possible can contribute.

Hon. Murugara.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, as I stand, I also agree that we should take five minutes, but we are not bound by any rules because we did not start with that. I implore Hon. Members and myself also to take five minutes to contribute so that as many Hon. Members as possible can speak to this important Motion.

I begin by thanking the Budget and Appropriations Committee, chaired by Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, for a fantastic job. I appeared before them, and they were really grilling. They asked many questions that we were able to answer, and that is how this Report was made.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, the net effect of what we are doing is to reduce the budget allocations, especially the ones on expenditure. This is purely because we have not been able to attain the targets that were in the original budget. This is the right thing to do simply because we cannot borrow all the time so as to bridge gaps in our budget. Therefore, sometimes we have to bite the bullet and reduce what we had budgeted for so that we can live within our means. We are not being over-ambitious. It is perfectly in order for a country to be ambitious, but if that ambition is not attained, then you make a tactical retreat by admitting that you cannot attain it; making a reduction and moving on.

We are making gains in terms of our local currency, which is appreciating. As a trade country, we should take advantage of this so that we are able to trade well, especially in terms of imports, which are benefiting from the local currency gains. As we move on to do the budget now, we must think of civil servants, including police officers, who are craving a salary increment because they say they are living in very poor conditions and their salaries are very low. We must look into this.

We must also look into the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme, which we have spoken about a lot. We are informed that due to the good long rains in the country, we will realise the fruits of the subsidy we have given for fertiliser. We must again caution the criminals and crooks out there who have found an opportunity to exploit this subsidy so that they do not go on to do crooked things to try and sabotage such a noble idea on subsidy and production that our country is banking on.

We have spoken about Article 223 of our Constitution, which allows the Government to spend money on emergencies without the approval of Parliament. This is extremely important, and the Government must stand warned that the only money to be spent under Article 223 is on emergencies. We have spoken about the emergencies of El-Nino that we have been experiencing and the damages we have seen on our roads. Those who live near river banks have experienced flooding and other problems. If any money has been spent on this, it is justified. We must speak to it. As Parliament, we must approve that the Article comes in handy, and the Government was right to use it to spend money on the emergencies we experienced.

Demolitions are happening in riparian sections and in areas where people are living in reserved areas. Every Member of Parliament, especially from Nairobi, is speaking passionately about it. However, we repeat that the Government must be cautious. These are human beings who must be treated with utmost dignity. We even have entities that have old title deeds with respect to lands that neighbour riparian sections. The net effect is that we cannot have any challenge to those title deeds, and we must tread with caution.

Finally, we have spoken about universities. I must point out that my two universities— Tharaka and Chuka—are in dire need of money. We must allocate money even if it is not in

this Supplementary Budget but in the main budget. Universities must be taken care of so that we can educate our children.

With those many remarks, Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to support the Motion.

Well done, Hon. Member for Tharaka.

Thank you. The next chance goes to Hon. Member for Dagoretti North, Hon. Elachi. I hope you will do the same.

I will, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Thank you for this opportunity. I also rise to support the Motion on Consideration of the Second Supplementary Estimates for the Financial Year 2023/2024. I appreciate our Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the team for appreciating that we all have to stand in the gap for the challenges we face and, more importantly, to ensure that we reduce the budget.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, if you look at the whole budget that we are reducing, we have to ask ourselves why we are reducing so much on the social side and leaving more on the defence side, yet that is where our people are suffering. We need to increase resources in the social sectors like education and health. I appreciate what we have given our community health workers and promoters an allocation. I also appreciate that we are looking at Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) in this House. Going forward, we have to ask ourselves how many KMTCs we have now. Can we try and work together so that students can go to the existing facilities rather than build new ones? Those are some of the things to consider. If we want to tighten our belt, then we do not have to do it by building new schools. Instead of building new schools, let us look at the ones that we have and improve their infrastructure. We can see how children can go to the schools rather than every one of us wanting to build an entirely new school, yet we are saying we want to work together. Some schools now have 100 students. You have a whole school, and you will still need to maintain those schools and make them better.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, let me speak for Nairobi. Indeed, I know we have a crisis of classrooms and all these challenges facing us. We also want to see that we are improving academically. Yes, we have huge numbers of students in our schools, about 5,000 of them. Even if I improve these schools, I will always know that I will have to look for maintenance funds in the next five years.

We also must start to have a moral sense in this House, to believe that Kenyans gave us the opportunity and privilege to make their budgets. When we are making budgets, we see our people feeling agitated. They are in a crisis all over. Nobody understands how an entrepreneur with a start-up can survive in an environment that is not conducive to doing business, like in Kenya. We have decided to have a common tariff within East Africa. I can go to Uganda and start a company, then open a branch in this country. So why are we chasing away people doing business in our country? This is because our business environment is very hurting. In as much as I support, as Parliament we must stand with courage and tell the Executive that our people cannot live like this. We have to do so because we were elected, unlike the Executive. We were voted in, and so we have to stand up and fight for our people.

As I finalise, we cannot continue the way we are doing. For example, Nairobi City County gives allotment letters. You find somebody has demolished a building in Kileleshwa because it is on riparian land. Then, tomorrow, you will see another building built there. They are hurting some people, yet they are the ones who allow them to build on riparian land. So, every Kenyan will want to build on riparian land. As leaders, what we are doing is very unfair. Most of us have shops that sell clothes and other things there, but we want to finish Mathare and Ruaraka. This is not right.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support, but it is high time this House stood for what is in the Constitution.

Thank you. Next is the Member for Mwingi West.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to add my voice to the Second Supplementary Estimates. From the onset, I will take two minutes because I know Members have a lot of interest in this. I thank the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Mhe. Ndindi Nyoro, and Members for the effort they put in working on this Supplementary Estimates.

Based on the economic issues this country has been experiencing, I want to laud a few sectors that have gained from this Second Supplementary Estimate, such as the higher education sector. Most universities and tertiary institutions have been suffering. The increment is good because it has given them life. Also, the NPS in the security sector has gained. I was happy when I read the President's Speech during Madaraka Day and was optimistic about this current financial year. Indeed, we have enhanced fertiliser subsidies, and sugarcane farmers will also gain from the Second Supplementary Estimates.

Our country experienced the El Niño phenomenon, which still affects some parts, and the people affected will gain. Also, for the welfare and just Government of the people, our bodyguards and drivers have gained. I am worried because we have reduced Government spending on infrastructure. This country has many stalled projects, especially in the road sector. Every time we allocate a lot of money to this sector, it ends up being reduced. In the future, we need to stop new projects and complete the ones already estimated in the budget. This way, we will ensure no white elephant projects in our country.

The other issue is that we are doing a supplementary budget a few days before the end of the financial year. It would be good if the last supplementary budget was done, at least, two months before the end of the financial year so that we can enable the users of this money to escalate services to Kenyans.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. With those few remarks, I support.

Thank you. Next is the Member for Teso South.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity. From the onset, I rise to support the Second Supplementary Estimates. This Motion is very important because it seeks to provide additional funding to cater to emerging priorities and emergencies. There has been an increase in recurrent expenditure of Ksh38.71 billion, and most of these monies go to the State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) and Regional Development. This will directly mitigate the impact of the El-Niño rains we witnessed nationwide.

Besides addressing the emerging issues and priorities, the Second Supplementary Estimates are basically meant to adjust, review, and align budget allocations. For example, we did budget performance and noticed serious under absorption in some MDAs. So, at this point, we also align budgetary allocations with budget absorption to reflect the current and accurate position. We also look at the A-in-A projections. Some institutions had projected to collect certain amounts of money. However, after assessing our budget performance for the financial year 2023/2024, we realised that some institutions or MDAs had under-collected while others had over-collected or surpassed their projections. Again, the Second Supplementary Estimates seek to align and reflect true figures.

With the increase in recurrent expenditure, most of the money goes to personal emoluments, and this cuts across various MDAs. Some of it goes to medical insurance for civil servants, security operations, and also to cater for allowances for our security and drivers.

These are areas that did not have sufficient funding before. Therefore, this is very critical. There is a reduction in development funds, which is affecting donor partner funds. This is of concern because it may increase operational costs and has been attributed to shortfalls in revenue collection.

By April 2024, we had collected Ksh21.79 billion against the projected Ksh24.21 billion. As a House, what does this mean going forward? This means that as we prepare to debate and engage in the budget estimates for the financial year 2024/2025, we need to focus more on revenue-raising measures and how to shrink our expenditure further. We need to look at areas of duplication and overlaps. This is especially true in the water, agriculture, and health sectors where there is a lot of overlap within the MDAs. This House needs to address this by further shrinking expenditures and, therefore, minimising deficits. I support the amounts allocated to the school feeding programme, fertiliser subsidies, and sugarcane farmers. I laud the Budget and Appropriations Committee for a good job.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support.

Thank you, Hon. Makali Mulu.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I also want to join my colleagues in appreciating this good work and make the following observations.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, if we look at the Supplementary Budget, we will realise that a few areas have been taken care of that are critical to Kenyans. The first one was an increase in resources for schools infrastructure that was destroyed by floods. That is very good. The only observation I make is that with this money being allocated, we need to ensure that there is equity in the distribution of the resources so that these additional resources are equitably shared so that all parts of the country that were affected benefit.

The second critical matter is the pending bills, which are quite a thorn in the flesh of Kenyans. It is important that the Committee has also factored in some resources to clear them. My appeal is that we consider Kenyans who have been waiting for long for their pending bills to be cleared so that they pay their bills. In that case, we will make sure that we do not have people who have pending bills from last year paid while those who have been waiting ten years are not paid.

The other important issue is that political parties have been allocated an additional Ksh200 million, which is critical for the growth of democracy in this country. The reduction was Ksh800 million, but now the increase is only Ksh200 million. We understand matters of the Exchequer release might be a challenge in terms of disbursing the entire Ksh800 million. However, as we move to the future, it is very important that we allocate resources to political parties if we want to grow our democracy. This is a matter for all of us, as a House, to support so that our political parties become strong. With strong political parties, democracy in this country will grow, and the country will do well politically.

The other concern I have is the reduction of infrastructure resources, particularly roads. With the flooding we just experienced, it is unfortunate that road funding has been reduced. We understand some were donor-funded, and, on that basis, resources could not be accessed. But, Hon. Temporary Speaker, we need more resources going towards roads as opposed to reducing them. In the Estimates, we should factor in more resources to develop roads.

Another matter worth mentioning is the use of Article 223 of the Constitution. We continue to experience abuse of this Article. It is important for the Executive to do what it takes to reduce the abuse of this Article. The Article only allows for unplanned activities and emergencies. We realise that some of the expenditures do not fall under those categories. It is important, as a country, to take care of this.

Another issue concerns the development budget. The more we continue reducing the development budget in our Supplementary Budgets, the less we will help the economy grow. The total amount reduced in the development budget is a huge figure. Even if it is the issue of absorption rates, it is important that we use development budgets to grow this economy.

My last point is what the Deputy Speaker mentioned, which is very important. It is important for us, as a country, to tie the reports of the Public Accounts Committee with the reports of the Budget and Appropriations Committee so that those MDAs that have been highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee for not spending public resources well should not get more resources when we are budgeting. That has been a gap. We need to sort it by the Public Accounts Committee sitting down with the Budget Appropriations Committee when it comes to the Estimates so that we harmonise those two reports and only allocate resources to areas where we are getting value for money.

I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Hon. Mbadi, you have heard what Hon. Makali has said. I know you are the Chair, Public Accounts Committee.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Let me also make my contributions on this Motion before us on the Supplementary Budget II. I know this is a very difficult time for the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I congratulate the Committee, which is led by Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, for scaling the stairs and chewing gum at the same time. This is the time that they not only consider Budget Estimates II, but also the main Budget Estimates alongside other very important Bills like the County Allocation of Revenue Bill and the Division of Revenue Allocation Bill.

Having said that, I want to say the following. One is that even though we say because of economic realities, that is why we are cutting the Budget, the truth of the matter is that we have deliberately, as a country, for years now, been untruthful in our budgeting process. I say so because the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities force the Government of Kenya to mislead the public on the projected revenue collection. There is no single time, as a country, that we have been realistic in our revenue projections. We use projected ordinary revenue as a balancing figure. What we do, as a country, is to project expenditure. After projecting expenditure, we then decide how much we will get from external and domestic borrowing. We lump the remaining amount into the projected revenue. That is dishonest. The IMF also stands accused of participating in this dishonesty, agreeing with Kenya and allowing it to misreport its budgets.

We are saying that the Budget is being cut by Ksh24 billion. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I am saying this because I know you also sit on the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Yes, we are cutting the Budget by Ksh24 billion, but where is the cut? The cut is on the development expenditure of Ksh75 billion, and there is an increase in recurrent expenditure of Khs51 billion. What is the justification for this? When we cut the development budget, we simply do not grow the economy. So, when we cut the Budget for this year, we affect the following year because the economic growth for the present financial year is supposed to help and influence what is supposed to happen in the economy in the subsequent financial year. It is not right to always and continuously reduce our development expenditure at the expense of recurrent expenditure.

As a House, we are being dishonest. We continue to complain in every cycle about misuse of Article 223 of the Constitution, but we do nothing about it. In fact, we help the Executive to perpetuate this vice. I have proposed legislation in this House to streamline and bring a statute to actualise Article 223 because it is too general – it is a blank cheque – that we give the Executive, particularly the National Treasury, to misuse. We use Article 223 even to buy pieces of land as we did with the Ruaraka land. That can never be an emergency. When I

made this proposal, which went to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, the Committee was initially very receptive. However, when the National Treasury appeared before the Committee, it made a complete about-turn and somersault. Now, my Bill has been rejected. How on earth would a Committee kill a Bill that is supposed to come to 349 Members of Parliament to make a determination and a decision on, and then we come here and complain about how Article 223 is being misused? We have allowed the Executive to misuse this Article at will and to actually steal from the people of Kenya - taxpayers’ money.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, as I wind up, I want to mention that I support the allocation of money for flood mitigation and particularly for reconstruction. The constituency I have represented for 15 years in this House, which I continue to live in and hope to continue representing in the future, Suba South, had the worst disaster that we have ever encountered - Sindo. We lost lives. There is a Mzee who lost his three children and his home together with his land. He could not even construct or bury his three children on that land, and I had to use my money to acquire land for him.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I hope he will be one of the people who will be given money for reconstruction so that he can buy land and build. I only bought one acre for him. He has a family of 10 children, and he lost three of them in a day. He now has seven children and still needs to reconstruct his life. So, this money should not be taken to specific areas. It must be taken and given across the country.

We are giving money for fertiliser subsidy but the same is being stolen. This House made a resounding decision on the Cabinet Secretary. A few of us went and sanitised it later. These are the things we should not do because Kenyans get fatigued with taxation. When their taxes are being misused, they get fatigued and are not happy. When they see us, they see criminals who are participating in sanitising people who are stealing their money.

Finally, I have heard, listened and agreed with what Hon. Deputy Speaker said about ensuring that there is prudent use of resources. I support that. However, as we call upon PAC to scrutinise these accounts, it should not be lost to this House that we are under-funding a very key institution called the Office of the Auditor-General. If you look at the financial reports that we receive from this Office, there is a rush in compiling and auditing them. We need more resources in this Office, so that they can do forensic and special audits which are more detailed. In fact, the few special audits that I have before my Committee are so detailed and damning in their findings. However, if you look at the financial audits, you do not expect the PAC to bring damning reports. Where will they come from? The Office of the Auditor-General is not well resourced to do proper audit. Let us give them money to do proper audit and come up with special and forensic audits. PAC will bring reports that can be used to control and manage corruption in this country.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, with those many remarks, I support the Motion.

Member for Gilgil.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I also rise to support this Report by the Budget and Appropriations Committee led by Hon. Ndindi Nyoro.

I have picked some few issues that these Supplementary Estimates are focused on. Number one is education. We have a major problem in basic education in terms of the Ministry of Education funding going to schools, the issue of floods and emergency response. Many of these are left to the National Government - Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) . We should not forget that we budget once a year. Sometimes, our proposals are already approved by the Board and money is allocated to projects, yet you are supposed to respond to emergency issues. I know schools in my constituency where we have to reconstruct three or four classrooms for children to attend classes.

I have seen toilets that have sunk. We have tried so much with NG-CDF to construct them, but it is not sufficient. It is time that this was done properly from the ground. The most important people in this process are not only the education officers but also the National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) who are on the ground. These are the Assistant Chiefs, Wazee wa Nyumba Kumi and the Chiefs, so that this information is budgeted for and money is spread across the country but not just in one region.

The other issue that we also need to focus on is the issue of overlap and duplication of duties. I know we have allocated some money for El-Nino in different State Departments. We have done that in the State Department for Roads. If you look at the Supplementary Estimates, you will see the State Department for Public Works and State Department for Irrigation also have some money. Do not forget that we also have the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA). I hope that we will be able to know what each institution, parastatal or State Department does. We need accountability. As it has been said before by other speakers, our problem is not even the collection of money in this country but how it is spent. We need prudence and accountability of this money. We have allocated money for El-Nino to different State Departments, NDMA and the counties have another budget. You hear that two per cent of their budget goes to emergencies. We also have two per cent of NG-CDF which goes to emergencies. We need synergy to know what exactly has been done and how we can track this. More importantly, there is the issue of oversight and overlap of mandates, especially even in Parliament. I do not see the reason the cabinet secretaries in this country have to scramble to go to the Senate in the morning and come to the National Assembly in the evening because it is meant to increase accountability.

The Senate focuses on the issues that are supposed to be done by this House, yet the counties are struggling with accountability issues. We will get to a point where we will clear that the governors are the ones who should appear before the Senate to answer accountability issues, so that the cabinet secretaries can appear before this House. Otherwise, this overlap will keep on being a circus. A cabinet secretary will be summoned to appear before a committee in this House, and he will say he appeared before the Senate on the same issue. At the end of the day, they know that they do not have any mandate in terms of allocation of resources or even any censure Motion cannot go through in the Senate.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, there is the issue of health, which we still have a long way to go. Some of the issues have been addressed through this Supplementary Budget. I hope that many of the issues, especially on referral hospitals, will be addressed in the main budget. The idea of having referral hospitals is that we only take the major diseases there. The health centres and dispensaries should be working and county governments should focus on them. They should ensure that the dispensaries are working, so that immunisation of children, Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and malaria can be managed there. Issues that can be managed at the local level should not be taken to referral hospitals. That way, we will free the referral hospitals to attend to major health issues.

I have seen we have allocated money for backup generators for Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in this Supplementary Budget. To most people in this country right now, the health function is in limbo. The Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) is not rolled out very well. The transition from National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to SHIF is not very smooth. So, we have very many fundraisers. I do not think that there is any Member of Parliament who does not have a fundraiser every weekend for a sick person, hospital bill and a body that is held in a mortuary. We need to do this transition very well, so that we ensure that SHIF is working.

On the issue of Linda Mama Programme, we still have a long way to go. It was supposed to take care of prenatal care, birth and postnatal care. However, it is still in a limbo

right now. Mothers are still struggling when they are giving birth. We still have a long way to go.

On the issue of university funding, I can see there is an increase here but there is a bigger issue on university funding model. Many children or young people are supposed to begin choosing their courses this week or next week. We are still not sure on what is happening in the funding model. Even as we look at the Supplementary Estimates, we should also look at the bigger policy issue through the Departmental Committee on Education to ensure that this is working well because it is not working well right now. It is causing jitters and making families destitute as they try to raise money to take their children to universities. There is much say, but we have time constraints. I will leave it at that.

I support the Motion. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Member for Kiambaa.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this Motion on Consideration of the Second Supplementary Estimates for the Financial Year 2023/2024. I also congratulate the Budget and Appropriations Committee led by Hon. Ndindi Nyoro.

We really worked hard to make sure that this Supplementary Budget is up-to-date. There were issues in it that we addressed. We allocated money to support ministries, especially on the issue of emergency. We had El Nino in our country, which came before we planned for it. We were told about the El Nino which came before we could plan for it. The National Treasury and the ministries concerned were forced to make sure that they had some emergency money to deal with El-Nino and the floods. This issue has really affected many people, and we need to ensure that that our people have basic needs like shelter and necessities like blankets. This will ensure that they have places to call home because they were majorly affected by floods, and were not able to salvage anything as far as those issues were concerned.

In my constituency, I have areas that were seriously affected by floods. Mathare, Taita and Tana River too were affected. As a Committee, it is prudent for us to budget and allocate funds for emergency so that in times of emergency, we can help our people.

We were able to allocate money to the concerned ministries, and especially to schools which were destroyed by floods. We appropriated about Ksh450 million to assist these schools so that they can rebuild their infrastructures, and ensure that students go back without any hindrances because it was something that was unplanned for. We did not see it coming, but we had to ensure that it was in the budget. We ensured they had enough resources so that they can rebuild their infrastructure so that our students can go back to school. We believe in our education system. Our children are the next leaders of this Republic. We allocated about Ksh450 million for the structure renovation in this Supplementary Budget.

We also allocated money towards the insurance of our policemen who have been doing a great job for this Republic. Every time we have insecurity issues, we always go to them for assistance, and therefore, it was important for the Committee to allocate some money for them. They risk their lives. Sometimes they fight with the bandits and ensure that the borders of our nation are secure. When there are insecurities in our villages, we run to them for help. Therefore, it was important for the Committee to appropriate the insurance funds so that the police officers can be insured in case of any emergencies within their line of duty or probably, when they are sick they can be attended to. They do not have to think about securing our nation and at the same time about how they will pay their hospital bills and that of their families in case need arises.

Therefore, as the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Affairs, we thought it important for us to appropriate money for their insurance and ensure that they have a safety net in case of emergency.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, when someone has eaten and you have some food on the table, the next worrying thing is their health. Among the policies that we made is that every Ministry should ensure that the first charge within their budget is anything to do with the pending bills.

We were able to allocate Ksh300 million for Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation because in the main budget, we will have Ksh50 million per constituency. We, therefore, thought it prudent for us to give them Ksh300 million to start preparing the infrastructure so that when this money comes on board, they would absorb and assist us in our constituencies. They would also ensure that different committees and constituencies absorb the money and utilise them in the development of infrastructure needed to help our people especially, on the last mile with the issue of transformers and street lights.

The last one was the school feeding programme for primary schools. We made sure that there would be money for food for our primary school children because for us to retain our students in schools, it is important to ensure that they have a budget. Some of these children sleep hungry at homes and they go to school because they are sure of a plate of food. We did a good job, and I want to congratulate the Budget and Appropriation Committee. I am a Member of the Committee, and therefore, I support.

Thank you very much.

Member for Alego Usonga

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support the appropriations. I support this Motion on the Supplementary Estimates. Allow me to highlight the following issues. The first one is that it is very difficult to make a budget when it is glaring that the revenue outside is not meeting the targets. As we went through this process, we realised that one of the challenges that this country is going to face moving forward, is the fact that KRA is not meeting the targets as defined by this House. This is happening despite this House going through the last Finance Act, and now, we have the current Finance Bill which we are going through, which has outlined various tax measures which propose to realise more revenues at the end.

The reason this Supplementary Estimates are before us is because of a failure to meet a target of about Ksh250 billion of projected revenues. This is the reality of the matter and this House needs to be aware that even if we have those ambitious projects which we want to achieve, as a country, we will never achieve them if we do not meet the revenue targets.

The second point I wanted to make is the question of increasing recurrent expenditure and reducing development expenditure.

All the Supplementary Budgets that I have gone through, and which I have seen since I became a Member of this House, always target to reduce development expenditure at the same time increasing recurrent expenditure. Tied to that is the question of the Exchequer. You are aware that even as we went through this Supplementary Estimates, we realised that there was no development expenditure since the start of this Financial Year because of the Exchequer.

If you look at the budget implementation, you will realise that the economy will not be able to perform as projected because we tend to implement development expenditure at the tail end of the year.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I was hoping that you would listen to me, but you are distracted. Please, listen to what I am saying. There is a question of Exchequer affecting development expenditure in this country and development budget would be implemented towards the tail end of the Financial Year. And this is going to affect the way the economy is going to perform based on how we project the resources.

I, therefore, want to emphasise that going forward, as a House, we need to find a way in which we can implement our development projects early enough before the end of the Financial Year so that we can see real developments happening for our people.

Lastly, there is something called ‘confidential account’ in many Ministries.

Hon. Didmus Barasa.

Looking at the Members who have contributed to this Motion, they are in support. It is a clear indication that the Chair of Budget and Appropriations and his team did a very good job. It is, therefore, against this background that I implore on you to invoke Standing Order 95 and call upon the Mover to reply.

I, thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

The Member for Kimilili has requested that we ask the Mover to reply. Is it the mood of the House that the Mover be called upon to reply?

Order! Order, Hon. Osoro. Take your seat. You are the ones to decide. Order! Hon. Member, take your seat. Today and tomorrow, we will be debating almost similar matters. After this matter, the next matter is the Division of Revenue Bill. It will then be followed by the main estimates for the next Financial Year. So, those who will not get a chance now, I am sure they will get a chance in the next order of business. However, this is your decision to make.

So, I will put the question.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I want to assure my colleagues that the next Motion is the same in terms of the talking notes. Therefore, when they get a chance, they can utilise the same points on the next two Motions, the Mediation Report and the main budget in the afternoon.

I beg to reply.

Before we go to the next order, I will allow the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to table the document he has.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table: Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee on its consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the Financial Year 2024/2025 and the Medium Term and the Compendium of the Departmental Committee Reports of the consideration of the Annual Estimates.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, if you may permit, I also want to request Members. We will be debating the Budget Estimates for the Financial Year 2024/2025 in the afternoon. It is good that Members are guided. It is a major item in the afternoon. As we are aware, it is one of the primary reasons why we legislate. I know that is information that is appropriate.

Thank you.

Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, approach the Clerks-at-the-Table and table the document as it were. Table it. You are supposed to table it.

Chairman of Budget and Appropriations Committee, you know what to do. What you did before you tabled was not the right thing to do. We give notice formally. I know you have given notice colloquially but now give the notice formally.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. That was for the tabling.

I request that this House adopts the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee on the Budget Policy Statement…

It is giving notice of the Motion.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion:

THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee on its consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure and the Medium Term for the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, laid on the Table of the House on Wednesday, 5th June 2024, and pursuant to the provisions of Article 221 of the Constitution, Section 39 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 and Standing Order 239-

Thank you very much. You gave the notice and proceeded to read the notice itself. You will do all that again in the afternoon. However, the notice is dully given. The Motion will be debated in the afternoon.

Next Order.

The Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee.

THAT, pursuant to the provisions of Article 113 (2) of the Constitution and Standing Order 150 (3) , this House adopts the Report of the Mediation

Committee on the Division of Revenue Bill (National Assembly Bill No.14 of

Hon. Members, allow the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to move the Motion in silence.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I wish to thank the Members of this House. They gave us a role as the mediation team that was appointed by the Speaker to negotiate with the Senate in the Mediation Committee. There were different figures that had been proposed in so far as the Division of Revenue Bill is concerned.

The Division of Revenue Bill appropriates money that goes to the national Government and counties vertically. It is a very important component in the budget-making process. It is the legislation that gives way for the appropriation of the budget. We only appropriate when we know the exact amount of money that is coming to the national Government and the county governments. We have a Budget of about Ksh4 trillion which we will debate later today, in the afternoon. We have tabled it. As Members of this House know, there are rules designated for the national Government and county governments.

I want to take very little time. I appreciate the togetherness and unity of purpose witnessed in the Mediation Committee led by the National Assembly that I represented. Hon. Kathuri Murungi led the Senate. We met for many hours, and until late at night to discuss the amount of money that will go to our counties as equitable share. Equitable share comes from shareable revenue. As we debate this Motion today and table the Report, we have seen great improvements in our counties. Most of the governors are doing their best in providing the critical devolved services. Our meetings in the Mediation Committee noted that county governments need more resources to function optimally. I say so because there are elements in which the national Government and county governments have partnered. They need more resources to partner with the national Government optimally, especially on the industrial centres we are building in every constituency. The resources will help community health promoters and any other critical social investments.

Many times, people see a case when they see the name “mediation”. A case means there is the “we” and “them”. I want to report to this House that we witnessed unity of purpose. We realised that the National Assembly and the Senate were speaking the same language. We had to consult with the Executive because this is a weighty matter. I also thank our leaders, led by

President Dr William Samoei Ruto who pronounced himself about support to devolution. In our consultations, the President was very categorical that this administration supports devolution, and we must do everything possible to support our county governments to run efficiently and optimally.

When we went for mediation, the Senate had proposed a figure of Ksh415 billion as equitable share. The CRA had suggested a figure of approximately Ksh398 billion. This House had proposed a figure of approximately Ksh391 billion. The National Assembly of the 13th Parliament supports devolution. The Senate also has intelligent people who support devolution. Additionally, our President supports devolution. After mediation and negotiation, I report to this House that this House goes into history as a House that walks the talk in support of devolution. We have increased equitable share from Ksh385 billion to a historic figure of Ksh400.1 billion to our counties.

For this to happen and be successful, it is important for me to acknowledge the Council of Governors (CoG) led by Kirinyaga Governor who is Hon. Anne Waiguru. She has been attending the Committee’s meetings. We have discussed this matter and she has pronounced herself clearly on getting more resources for our county governments. She did a lot for us to get to this figure.

Again, I repeat that we have an unprecedented figure or a historic figure of Ksh400.1 billion to our counties as equitable share. This means better healthcare services, more efficient services in the agricultural sector, more money for hiring Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers, and more money for county roads. It means more money for all other devolved functions.

We foresee this figure increasing. Currently, there is a process of unbundling some of the shared services and functions. The national Government retains a lion’s share in healthcare. It retains a huge amount in agriculture. A process of unbundling those services and functions is going on. That is so that county governments get more resources when functions truly and fully transfer to county governments. I wish to state those facts.

I know Hon. Osoro is looking at me. However, Hon. Nyakundi had already taken cue to second the Motion. I request Hon. Japheth Nyakundi to second this Motion.

Hon. Japheth Nyakundi.

Thank you for this opportunity. Firstly, I thank the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I thank his Co-Chair in the Mediation Committee from the Senate, Hon. Murungi. I thank them for making sure mediation between the National Assembly and the Senate on the Division of Revenue Bill was successful. Historically, this is the first time monies to county governments hit Ksh400 billion. These monies are going to assist us in our county governments.

As the national Government, we assure county governments that we support devolution. The President of the Republic of Kenya, Dr William Ruto, supports devolution. That is why we are smiling seeing the monies going to county governments. This money will go a long way in paying pending bills. Most county governments have many pending bills. The Ksh400.1 billion that is shareable revenue will pay the pending bills we owe most contractors and business people who do business with county governments. Most of them have lost their property and lives due to payment delays.

County governments will be able to pay ECD teachers, employ more ECD teachers, and build more ECD classes. These monies will go a long way to ensure that county governments are able to put drugs in hospitals. We have seen that most of these hospitals do not have drugs and are not well equipped. These monies will assist in building more healthcare facilities and more Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals, together with dispensaries. We assure county governments that the national Government will assist them to handle all devolved

functions effectively and prudently. Giving them enough money will make county roads motorable and our farmers will be able to take their produce to the markets.

This will also go a long way in making sure that we are able to employ agricultural extension officers that are able to assist farmers in the village and that the national Government is able to further subsidise fertiliser. The national government has been able to subsidise fertiliser. County governments should also assist in making sure that the subsidised fertiliser is subsidise further.

Thank you. Members, before I propose the question, join me in welcoming students from Machakos Girls’ High School, who are seated in the Public Gallery. They are welcome to follow our proceedings today.

The first person to have a bite at this cherry would be Hon. Atandi, for obvious reasons.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, thank you very much. I rise to support the Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Bill which has been ably presented by my Chairman, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro. I was part of the mediation team that midwifed this Report, together with the team that represented the National Assembly, led by the Co-Chair, Hon. Ndindi and the other Co-Chair from the Senate, Hon. Kathuri Murungi from Meru County. This is one of the best reports that this House is going to pass. The amount of money we have allocated to counties has now passed the Ksh300 billion figure. This is a substantial amount which, if well utilised by the counties will enable us see development in the counties. As we discuss this Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Bill, the shareable revenue to counties is not subject to supplementary budget. Even if the revenue forecast is not achieved, the money allocated to counties is never changed. Therefore, it is stable money and counties have no excuse. Whereas we are going to consider supplementary budgets in response to shortage in revenue, the money going to counties does not change.

Secondly, there are some functions which have not been properly devolved and this is something that this House needs to take very seriously. Even as we pass budgets here, there are some

functions that are still being held by the national Government against the Constitution. This is something that we need to really be serious about and ensure that all those functions which were constitutionally meant for counties are done by counties. If this is done, then we are not going to have conflict when sharing revenues vertically between national Government and county governments. The argument which has been advanced by governors and the Senate is that there are too many functions which we are still holding up here, which actually should go to counties.

Thirdly, we are in the 13th year of devolution and there are some counties that are still a shame. If you go to some counties, you wonder whether they have been receiving these billions of shillings. Let us also use this forum to caution counties and some governors that we are not going to see them misuse resources or lazing around and failing to implement development projects for the benefit of the people. Devolution was created so that people in the grassroots benefit and grow, but many governors are corrupt and live large. They are not implementing development projects. If you go to some counties, I do not want to mention their names, you will find that nursery school children do not even have ECD classrooms. The classrooms do not exist but governors are running around in big convoys. There is a governor who travelled to a foreign country with a convoy of more than 100 members of staff. This is something that we really need to talk about.

As we give them resources, we must ensure that there is a way to check how they use the resources. I do not think senators are doing a good job in terms of over-seeing counties. That is my personal view. If they were doing a good job, then we would ensure that counties perform with the resources we give them. Senators are only interested in backbiting the National Assembly. They want to do roles that we are supposed to do, overseeing the national government. They have left counties to die. Let devolution work for our people. If it cannot work for our people, we can discuss.

Thank you.

Thank you. Hon. Nyikal.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. This is a basic issue and I would implore the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to listen to me. The fact that the Committee noted the need of counties is the basic issue. The basic issue is not whether people support devolution or not. The basic issue is the process of the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) . When we consider BPS, we have a tremendous number of details from the national Government telling us the needs of the national Government, department by department and agency by agency. At that time, the National Assembly has no idea what the needs of the counties are. To a large extent, the BPS is a document of the National Assembly. In fact, it is a document of the national Government and not a document of the country.

When we come to the Division of Revenue Bill, which is a direct product of BPS, we are actually guided by only two factors. Factor number one is the constitutional requirement of 15 per cent and factor number two is the formula from the allocation of CRA, whose details we do not know when we are discussing BPS at the National Assembly. So, what happens is that, depending on those two factors, we come up with a figure without knowing the details of the needs of county governments. The Chairperson of the Committee is right when he says that when they sat down they started to see the needs of county governments such as ECDs, health, irrigation and water. That is because we missed that information when we were discussing BPS. That is where the Division of Revenue Bill comes from. So, unless we look at that factor, this problem will be perennial. We will always have mediation in this process. The Senate actually has a better insight of what the needs of counties are than us and they understand emotionally and constitutionally that it is their duty to support counties. The National Assembly has no information and we make a decision on division of revenue on that basis. Therefore, we have to wait until senators refuse then we sit down. That is when we start to have an incline as the National Assembly, and not the whole National Assembly but only those who are involved in the negotiations.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, this is where the problem is. It is a reflection that we have not implemented the devolution process properly. It also relates to what happens to the ministries. Some ministries are supposed to be devolved but still have national Government

functions. The Ministries of Health; Agriculture and Livestock Development; Water; Sanitation and Irrigation; Mining, the Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs still have a lot of money that is being allocated at the national level while these functions were devolved. At what point does the national and county governments meet and see the need for each other? Where is the link? In my view, the Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) is not working. The CoG Secretariat and the IGRTC are fighting each other instead of working together. How does the national Government get to know the problems of the counties? Where do the technical officers at the county get an insight in the process of the policies that will affect what they will implement? That is the problem and that is what we need to address. Where can we address it? Is it at the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC)? IBEC has this meeting. I will talk to the Chairperson for the Budget and Appropriations Committee because I am interested to listen to this. If IBEC would come with the details that we require and come to us at the time of discussion, we may solve these problems and will not keep having these negotiations year in year out. This is because, we would have seen the need at the National Assembly when we are discussing the Division of Revenue Bill.

Thank you. I hope the Chairperson for Budget and Appropriations Committee got that.

Let us have the Hon. Member for Kimilili. As I said earlier Hon. Members, there are Members who started queuing at 9:30 a.m. and are still on this queue. I am going to follow the queue the way it is.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Bill in this country. For the first time I agree that Kenya, as a country, is progressing. I say so because, since the inception of devolution in this country, the revenue that we are sending to the county has crossed the Ksh400 billion mark. This is 24.4 per cent of the last audited accounts. This is progressive and I am confident that in the near future we will hit the ceiling set by the Constitution of 45 per cent.

While there have been outcry about some governors living large and not living within the expectations that are expected of them by the members of their respective counties to properly utilise this devolution funds well, I agree that not all counties are not accountable to the people. We have some counties that some governors are stretching their hand beyond the normal and are properly utilising these funds in improving the lives of the people of those counties. We cannot use the behaviour of a few governors who are not spending this money prudently to condemn all the governors in this country.

Devolution has done wonders in most of the counties in this country. I am 100 per cent convinced that in the near future all the 47 county governments will begin to utilise this devolution money well so that we can improve the lives of the Kenyan people going forward.

I take this opportunity to thank all the Members of Parliament both National Assembly and the Senate who have been burning the midnight oil to refine the Division of Revenue Bill. Most importantly, I thank the Chairperson for the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, because his competence and that of the Members of his Committee are expected. We expected they would do well because they have always been a blessing to this country. They have responded to the call of duty when called upon by our Constitution to do these things.

As I finish in contributing to the Division of Revenue Bill, I would like the County Government Act to be amended so that they follow the same procedures of a project proposal approval like the way we do with the NG-CDF. There are no projects that can be abandoned even when Members of Parliament or NG-CDF Committee changes year after year because the laws of NG-CDF Act will not allow the new projects to be funded without first completing the previous ones. The issue of having too many pending bills and many abandoned projects by

the county governments should be a thing of the past. We need to refine those laws to ensure no new project can be initiated without first completing the previous ones regardless of whether they were initiated by the previous governor whether tall, short, dark or light skinned. All those projects are funded from the Exchequer, tax payers of this country and they need to be completed.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is important to put that into consideration. We should also have a law that prevents governors who are exiting offices from over committing the budget by launching serious projects that require a lot of money which are later on abandoned when a new governor comes in.

With these very few remarks, I support this Bill. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Member for Sigowet/Soin.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for the opportunity you have given me so that I can express my support for the Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Bill. At the outset, I thank you for your pronouncement that we Members of Parliament who come and queue from 9:00 a.m. in the morning should get a fair opportunity to speak to the issues that are being debated. All said and done, the Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Bill is a product of intense discussions between the Senate and the National Assembly. I want to thank Hon. Ndindi Nyoro and the Co- Chairperson who have made sure that, at least, we get this Bill before the National Assembly so that we can release money to the counties for their projects.

fertiliser, we should also subsidise seeds and seedlings. The two go concomitantly in terms of agricultural production.

Finally, on the issue of roads, the roads that belong to the national Government and those that belong to the county government must be spelt out by the Kenya Roads Board. We should not get into a situation of a conflict on whose responsibility it is to do a particular road.

I support. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Baringo.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Member for Lafey, I said I would follow the list. You are fourth or fifth in the list that I have. So, stop raising your hand now and when I give someone an opportunity.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, from the outset, I declare that I am a Member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. We did a good job specifically on this Mediated Version of the Bill. Just like most Members have said, for the first time we have considered the Ksh400.1 billion to the counties. This is mostly because of the needs that were brought before us during the mediation. Most proposals were on the pending bills. Most counties are so much dependent on debts and the pending bills are becoming a problem. It is seriously hindering development in the counties. The proponents of the Constitution 2010, should have considered many things while establishing counties in Kenya.

If we are not very careful, this country will get into deep problems because of the mismanagement of the counties today. In almost all programmes that are being done, for example in education, the quality is very poor. Education starts from ECD which is 100 per cent work of the counties. However, when you visit these counties, most of the time, education is deteriorating. This results in illiteracy in the country. That is why when we allocate this money, we expect the counties to step up specifically in enhancing the quality of education. They should build structures which can help our children have good quality of education.

There is also a need for a paradigm shift in management. Most governors, maybe because they are elected, execute their work in a skewed manner. This is to the extent that one part of the county gets development at the expense of another. This gives so much discrepancy that counties may not be able to develop equally.

Corruption is also becoming a problem as corruption habits have developed in the counties. This has impaired the development of the counties such that we have problems in production. For example, in agriculture, instead of us continuously producing, we are continuously consuming. This has depleted the coffers. All the time we need a lot of money to support the counties specifically in the healthcare systems. Therefore, we thank the president for allowing us to give this Ksh400 billion to the counties for more support.

Member for Samburu West.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I thank you for the opportunity to support the Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Allocation Bill. I thank the leadership of this Committee —Hon. Ndindi Nyoro and Hon. Senator Murungi — who co-chaired the Mediation Committee, which I was part of. It was an intense meeting and some of the misconceptions were that the National Assembly does not support devolution. That was cancelled because Members of the National Assembly who were

sitting in the Mediation Committee agreed with the Senate that it is important for us to fund devolution fully so that devolution can work for our people. This came out from the final amount that was agreed on.

The Senate had proposed Ksh415 billion, the Commission on Revenue Allocation proposed Ksh396 billion while the National Assembly had proposed Ksh391 billion. By the end of the mediation process, we all agreed on an unprecedented figure of Ksh400.1 billion to go to our counties as shareable revenue. I agree with Hon. Nyikal who said that it is important when we are preparing the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), to know the priority areas of our counties. This will inform our decisions as the Budget and Appropriations Committee and as a House. We know the projections of the counties and some of the things they would like to do.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, you were also part of the Mediation Committee and saw that the Senate had an elaborate view of why they wanted more funds to go to the counties. They had a document which showed that there were some counties which had started the industrial parks. There were 21 others which had not started, while others had existing parks which needed to be funded. There was the issue of the Community Health Workers, where the county governments and national government were both giving a shilling thus funding our Community Health Promoters who are doing an excellent job. There was the statutory requirement of the taxes that were increased like the Housing Levy which the county government employees are supposed to remit.

The Senate had a bigger picture of why county governments should get the funds. I agree that this House needs to be apprised of some of these issues when we are making the BPS. Matters that are discussed in the IBEC need to find a way into this House so that when we are allocating these funds we know what we are dealing with.

We also agreed that even though we have challenges of misappropriation in some of our counties, as a House, we will not play the politics of individual counties.We have also agreed that despite facing challenges such as funds being misused at the county level, we, as a House, will not engage in county-specific politics. We will ensure that funds are allocated to all counties because devolution has brought services closer to our people in some of our counties. We need to reconsider devolving some of the functions of the National Government, like health and agriculture.

I would also like to congratulate the Chairperson of the Council of Governors, Governor Anne Waiguru. Over time, we have seen her engaging with the relevant committees and Members of this House, to increase the percentage going to the counties in her tenure. We have seen her dedication and commitment to ensuring that more funds go to counties and are remitted on time before the end of the financial year.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Thank you. Hon. Members, join me in welcoming students from Happyland Girls Senior School, from Kajiado East in the Speakers Gallery. They are welcome to follow our proceeding this afternoon. I allow Hon. Caleb Mule to welcome students from Machakos Girls High School and Happyland Girls Senior School.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I take this opportunity to welcome students from Machakos Girls High School and the schools at the Speaker’s Gallery and the Public Gallery. I encourage them that the sky is the limit. One time, many years ago, I visited Parliament and I was seated at the Public Gallery. I did not imagine that one time I would be seated here as a Member of Parliament. You are welcome and I encourage you to continue working hard.

Thank you very much. I would also like to contribute to …

Hon. Mule, that was not your chance to contribute. This chance now goes to the Member for Suna West.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I take this opportunity to congratulate Members of the National Assembly and the Senate who mediated this Bill.

As a country, the only thing after Independence that we can celebrate is the 2010 Constitution, which established county governments. I am happy to have been a Member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the 12th Parliament. We audited the Government books of accounts to an extent where counties could get funds based on the audit on the 2020/2021 Financial Year. By the time we got to the 12th Parliament, the audited accounts were for the 2013/2014 Financial Year. In retrospect, is devolution working for us; are we getting value for money appropriated to the county governments? In my opinion, without fear of contradiction, I believe that devolution is still not working for us due to governance issues.

I have extensive experience in county government governance, having served as the last Mayor of the Municipal Council of Migori. During that time, we would receive very little funds through the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) yet citizens could see the amount of work done. Currently, with over Ksh400 billion allocated to the counties, there is nothing to show for it. In contrast, the impact of the NG-CDF is evident. While I am a supporter of devolution, I firmly believe that as a country, we need to take action. We should enact legislation through Parliament to ensure that the public receives value for the funds allocated to county governments.

The main question is, what is the role of the Controller of Budget? Is this office effective? We must empower the Auditor-General so that the Ksh400 billion allocated to the counties can be audited. This will ensure that we get value for our money. My proposal is that Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) , whose role is to oversee the governors should have a Ward Development Fund. We need to create this Fund so that after we have allocated money to counties, each ward can get its share of this budget. It should not be that only MCAs who ‘worship’ governors get projects while the rest do not benefit. For example, if an MCA speaks about an evil a governor has done he is blacklisted. Therefore, moving forward, I suggest that the Ward Development Fund should be put in place. We must also budget for the Auditor- General to carry out audit for counties.

Furthermore, as a country, we need to do things in a way that the public sees the benefits of projects done by county governments. In some counties, you find a project of an ECD classroom done at Ksh600,000 being launched with 100 staff of the county government in attendance and 20 vehicles. It means that the money spent on the launch exceeds the money used on the project. This must stop. As we tax people, they should get benefits so that as taxes are increased they do not complain. My proposal is that it is over 10 years since the inception of devolution. We must re-check what needs to be done so that we can improve on the quality of services our people get from the money allocated to the county governments.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. May God bless you.

Member for Khwisero.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I join my colleagues in support of the Mediated version of the Division of Revenue Bill which provides funds to the National Government, county governments, Equalisation Fund and Consolidated Funds Services. I also thank the Mediation Committee for mediating this Bill.

We are where we are today because of the ineffectiveness of the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA). As a country and a House, we must think critically on whether we still need the CRA. If we need it, then it must up its game and advise accordingly. We should also think whether we need these commissioners on full-time basis. This is because according to the responsibilities and the roles they have, they only advise and propose a formula.

The National Government has been allocated approximately a whopping Ksh2.5 trillion. In as much as we are looking into the Ksh400 billion allocated to county governments, we must also interrogate how the 85 per cent of the budget allocated to the National Government is utilised across the country. I propose that we allocate these monies based on the constituency levels. We should interrogate this budget to know, out of the 290 constituencies, what has gone to, for example, Khwisero, Ugenya or Kiharu constituencies. This will ensure that we maintain the equality of resource distribution in this country.

As we allocate and appropriate Ksh400 billion to county governments, according to the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. There are functions that the county governments are supposed to do. One, they must ensure that our health systems are working. Our people in the villages must access quality and safe health facilities. Two, we should look into the issue of water. We must ensure that we have safe water for our people. It must also be accessible at the doorsteps.

As I finish, we must also laud the kings and patriots who fought for the devolution of this country. As we support this Bill, we must also appreciate the Azimio Party Leader, Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga, who really fought for the devolution of this country. As we wish him well as he goes to the African Union, we must all laud him for his efforts to ensure that devolution works in the Republic of Kenya.

Lastly, as a House, we must rise and interrogate this budget and ensure that it is equitably distributed to all regions in the Republic of Kenya. I wish you well as the Party Leader of Movement of Democracy and Growth (MDG). Thank you,

Thank you. The last part is most important actually. The Member for Kisii.

Thank you Hon. Temporary Speaker. As I support this Motion, allow me to first tell our male Members of Parliament that June is men's mental health month. Let me share a small quote with them, because we, women, cannot do without the male. “Life is sweet, it is tough and unforgiving, so you know what to do”.

As I support the Motion, there are many functions that have been devolved to our counties, and we still keep talking about them. For instance, I come from Kisii County where we receive good rains. Water is a devolved function but unfortunately, immediately after the rains, our women have to walk down to the streams to fetch water.

Currently, some county functions are not working. We have resources in Kisii County which are lying idle in the County Revenue Fund Account. As we give counties the budget, we should issue a stern warning to governors who do not pay pending bills. There is no need to give them money yet when the financial year ends, they still have a lot of money in those accounts. Contractors are complaining whereas the money is there, which is not good. Teachers, too, are complaining, especially the ECD teachers who do not have classes. They have also not been promoted, and this is very sad.

As at today, there are no tetanus vaccines in hospitals. Most women who wanted to plan on giving birth this year are discouraged because small things which are basic to us are missing. Even extension officers who used to train farmers on good agricultural practices are also missing.

We give counties money for floods, but at the end of the day, the governor gives Ksh5,000 or Ksh10,000 to victims out of the whole allocation. Out of the Ksh200 million which

was given to mitigate floods, they have only spent maybe Ksh10,000 in tokenism, which is not good.

As we give out this money, they should consider doing drainage systems, because when we have more floods, soil nutrients are affected thus we will have no food. Let me end it there.

Thank you.

Member for Lafey. Is it Lafey or Lafi?

Thank you Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity.

At the outset, I support the Mediated Version of the Division of Revenue Bill. I also take this opportunity to thank my able Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, his Vice-Chair, and all the Members who have made this happen. We all know that the National Assembly had proposed Ksh391 billion, Commission for Revenue Allocation proposed Ksh398 billion, and the Senate proposed Ksh415 billion. Settling on Ksh400.1 billion was not an easy task. They have done a good job. From Ksh385 billion to now Ksh400.1 billion is an increase of more than Ksh15 billion. This will help the devolved functions to perform better. We know some governors are doing very good job. In our area, it is on record that out of 47 counties, it is only in Mandera County where the governor pays school fees for all students in secondary schools within Mandera County. That is a good job. I thank him because he is helping the people who elected him. Since he was elected, there is no parent who pays a single coin for students going to secondary schools. That is good work.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, we all know that health, water, agriculture and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) are devolved functions. This increment will also support the governors to employ more youth. They are jobless. There are those who have done nursing courses. In Lafey Constituency, a health centre has only two nurses. This money will help the governors. They will not say that they cannot employ people due to shortage of funds. We have given them Ksh15 billion as shareable revenue. They will not say that they cannot employ the youth because of lack of funds.

We also know some governors have gone out of their way to provide school feeding programmes in their respective counties. This will help them to do more work. I want to go on record in thanking His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya, Dr William Samoei Ruto. We know he supports devolution. Without his support, we could not have increased the funds for the county governments today. Because of his support, the governors will get Kshs15 billion more. We know there are some areas which do not have ECD centres. In my constituency, there are too many locations without them. We are happy now. I am sure the governors will now prioritise them.

With those few remarks, I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support the Motion.

Thank you. Member for South Mugirango.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Mediation Committee for reaching out and making this decision, and allocating Ksh400.1 billion to county governments.

This is the first time that they are being allocated this substantial amount. It has always been Ksh370 billion, Ksh350 billion and 380 billion. We are now at about Ksh400 billion. If you work on the last audited report, you will realise that in terms of percentage, it is about 24.4 per cent. The Constitution sets 15 per cent as the limit or least amount of revenue which should be allocated to the county government. So, there is growth or rise of 9.4 per cent. We are in the right trajectory. However, I support this Motion with a lot of pain. We really know what county governments do. Much as we appreciate some counties that do tremendous job, it is also

important for us to mention that there are other counties that you can hardly see what these amounts do. The National Government is deeply focused on supporting devolution and pushing all the resources to the county governments. However, it is also important for us to state that devolution does not work in some counties. I do not know how others are able to do it. I, however, do not know how others function.

It is quite shocking how these amounts of money are shared across the counties. If each person sits down with a pen and paper to calculate the amount of money their counties receive, they will be shocked and surprised how the huge amounts are misused. In my county, for example, Ksh15 billion in the shared revenue is allocated but you hardly see what it does. We, therefore, need to review this law.

As we celebrate that large amounts have been allocated to county governments, it is about time we have a discussion on how the allocations should be spent. It is sad that about 90 per cent of it goes to recurrent expenditure. Unless we want to close our eyes, it is time we supported the MCAs to get to the level of managing these funds in the name of Ward Development Fund (WDF). That is the only time you can see devolution working. What we have otherwise done is create some demi-gods in counties; people who assume big titles and move around like mini presidents within counties, but you hardly see what they do. This is replicated across the country.

I was misquoted last time when I said that you will see governors having their own … (Hon. Njuguna Kawanjiku walked in front of Hon. Silvanus Osoro while he contributed on the Floor)

Hon. Kawanjiku, never repeat what you have just done today. You can never pass in front of a Member contributing looking at his eyes directly. You are not supposed to pass between him and the Speaker. By doing that, you will be distracting the House.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I think Hon. Kawanjiku is confused this morning. Maybe, he ate some muguka in the morning.

Hon. Osoro, proceed and finalise your contribution.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I hear some noise but let me proceed. I think it is part of the muguka working.

It is time we had this discussion and had the WDF to be managed by MCAs. If we do not, these demi-gods… Muguka is still passing…

Give Hon. Osoro a minute more. Hon. Osoro, kindly take your seat. I want to listen to Hon. Ruku.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is against Article 11 (3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya and The Crops Act (Miraa) Regulations, 2023 for Hon. Osoro to use defamatory words against a crop which is scheduled under the Crop Act of the Republic of Kenya.

You have made your point, Hon. Ruku. Keep your seat. Hon. Osoro, did you do that?

Hon. Temporary Speaker, all along, I have known muguka as part of the crops, and by saying that…

Did you do that?

I did not.

Okay, proceed and be relevant.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I think I have responded to the muguka point.

In conclusion, this character of Members in the Council of Governors spending huge amounts of money on unnecessary things should stop. What we have done with this allocation is to devolve corruption and create more demi-gods across the counties. As we support them, it is very important for us and the Government to be keen on the way this money is spent.

Thank you.

Hon. Bartoo.

Thank you for giving me the chance to also make my contribution. I thank the Chairmen who spearheaded this exercise to an agreement to uphold devolution and increase its money. The drafters of the Constitution knew that devolution would go a great way in developing our counties, constituencies and wards. With the increment and money appropriated to devolution, let us see ECD teachers employed. Let us see infrastructural development and construction of schools. Let us see our mothers and women not going to rivers to fetch water. We want to see water in our counties. Let us see the health sector being functional and our health centres, dispensaries, and hospitals fully operational with enough staff to support members of our communities. Let us see devolution working and services felt because there is money.

So that I donate time to my colleague here, I hope money will be used prudently and appropriately. Let us not see corruption in our counties. Let us see Governors folding their sleeves, going to work and giving services to wananchi of Kenya. Thank you.

Thank you. Hon. Ikiara.

Thank you very much. I also thank the Meditation Committee led by the very able Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Co-Chairman from the Senate.

The concept of devolution is the best thing that happened in this country. We underscore the fact that devolution came to take services closer to the people. I particularly call out counties doing exemplary job in ensuring all devolved services reach the citizens of this country. As much as we say we should add more resources to devolution, resources must follow devolved functions. We are perturbed because instead of a huge chunk of this money going to the intended purpose, we see massive wastage in our counties. It is high time we call out relevant authorities to do a thorough audit and ensure development comes first.

Hon. Kawanjiku, you and that team are so jumpy and active today. What is out of order?

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I am standing under Standing Order 95. I read the mood of the House that a majority of us agree it is important to allocate more money to county governments to the tune of about Ksh400 billion.

That is not what Standing Order 95 says.

Yes, I am on it. Understanding the mood of the House, I beseech the Hon. Temporary Speaker to call upon the Mover to reply so that we deal with this matter once and for all. I support that we call upon the Mover to reply.

Hon. Ikiara, take 30 seconds so that we finalise this.

Thank you for your wisdom. I am saying we should ensure there is more money in development and not recurrent expenditures where governors are at liberty to add more employees in counties at the expense of development. As we allow more money to counties, let it be used prudently so that we realise the fruits of devolution.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I thank His Excellency the President of this Republic because he is at the forefront championing devolution.

Thank you. Is it the mood of the House that we allow the Mover to reply?

Yes!

Hon. Ndindi Nyoro.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. As I reply, I request Members to come in the afternoon. We shall be debating a very weighty matter, that is the Budget of the Financial Year 2024/2025.

I thank all Members who have contributed. I beg to reply and request for the deferment of the putting of the Question, in accordance with Standing Order 53 (3) , to this afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. The Question on this matter will be put the next time this Bill is put up for consideration.

The time being 1.00 p.m., this House stands adjourned until today, Wednesday, 5th June 2024, at 2.30 p.m.

The House rose at 1.00 p.m.

Published by Clerk of the National Assembly Parliament Buildings Nairobi