It is a serious concern. We are in the Senate to defend devolution. We have today began a big fight to ensure counties receive their money.
The senators have denied counties money. They have gone against the Commission on Revenue Allocation recommendation of sending Sh407 billion to the counties.
People are suffering in places like Turkana and their senator has refused to send money to the counties.
For this country to be able to operate well under a devolved system, the framers of the Constitution set up an independent body called CRA to recommend how much money is to be shared, and it has clearly indicated to Parliament that Kenya Revenue Authority has surpassed their annual collection.
During the election year, KRA surpassed their collection by over Sh100 billion. This year they are going to surpass by over Sh380 billion.
The budget committee recommended that we go with the CRA recommendation of Sh407 billion. But the Kenya Kwanza administration led by the senators, who are supposed to defend devolution, has decided to defend their position of retaining money in the national government and only sending Sh305 billion to the counties.
The reason they gave was that they diverted money to the Hustler Fund and drought mitigation. Now, where are the people? Are the people in the national government or in the county governments?
They have denied the counties this money so that they retain more of the monies in the national government for health, agriculture, water, and all those are devolved functions.
We are calling on Kenyans to take notice of all the gallant men and women who voted to take money to the counties.
We want Kenyans to know that the Senate led by these members of Azimio has attempted to ensure more money goes to the counties.
Even the members of Jubilee who were supposed to be Azimio members and to vote with us today voted with the government. Choices have consequences.
Moving forward I want to assure you one thing, that if we cannot whip you for you to be able to defend devolution then you have no business serving at the pleasure of Azimio.
Narok senator spoke to the Star