National Assembly · Afternoon Sitting

Hon. Members, I wish to introduce to you a delegation of 16 members of the County Assembly of Kakamega seated in the Speaker’s Gallery. The delegation is led by their Deputy Speaker, Hon. Bernard Isindu Shitiyabai. They are also accompanied by nine members of staff. The delegation is on a visit to the National Assembly to benchmark on parliamentary processes and operations with various committees…

Deputy Leader of the Majority Party.

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

Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Labour. Where is Karemba? Is there any Member of the Committee around? Put it aside. Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning. Hon. Makilap, where is your Chairman? Take the microphone.

[(Laying of Paper deferred)]

Hon. Speaker, he is on his way to the Chamber.

Is it guesswork or you have spoken with him?

I was with him.

[(Laying of Paper deferred)]

Next Order. Leader of the Majority Party.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion: THAT, pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 28 (4) , this House resolves to alter its Calendar for the Second Session (Regular Sessions) as adopted on Wednesday, 15th February 2023 by varying the period of short recess with respect to Second Part of the Session so that:

Thank you, Leader of the Majority Party. I see Hon. Karemba here. Are his Papers ready? Yes, Makilap. Give the microphone to the Member of Baringo North. Go ahead.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table: Report of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning on its vetting of a nominee for appointment as Chairperson of the Commission on Revenue Allocation. .

Thank you. Table the document and proceed to give Notice of the Motion.

[(Hon. Joseph Makilap laid the document on the Table)]

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion: THAT, taking into consideration the findings of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning in its Report on the vetting of a nominee for appointment as Chairperson of the Commission on Revenue Allocation, laid on the Table of the House on Tuesday, 27th June 2023; and pursuant to the provisions of Article 215 (2) (a) of t…

Thank you, Hon. Makilap. Karemba, are you ready now? I am told your documents are not ready. You will do so on Thursday. You will lay your Paper and give Notice of Motion on Thursday.

[(Laying of Paper deferred)]

That is okay, Hon. Speaker.

Mwengi Mutuse.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion: THAT, aware that Article 43 of the Constitution as read together with Section 9 of the Water Act of 2016 provides for access to clean, safe and adequate water for all citizens; further aware that access to water guarantees human and animal health, food security, and clean and sustainable environment, among other

socio-economic drivers; acknowledging that with a population of nearly 53 million, about 28 million Kenyans lack access to safe water while 41 million lack access to improved sanitation; further acknowledging the rising water demand in the country and the growing water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, urbanisation, water pollution, and poor management of water resources; noting t…

Thank you, Hon. Mutuse. Hon. Members, you will notice you have a Supplementary Order Paper that was necessitated by some amendments to the Bill going to the Committee of the whole House. We will use the Supplementary Order Paper from now going forward. Hon. Members, before we go to the next Order, allow me to recognise students from the following schools seated in the Public Gallery:

Asante Mhe. Spika kwa kunipatia nafasi niwakaribishe wanafunzi wote walio hapa, hususan Nyali School ya Mombasa. Nyali School inasifika na inajulikana kwa utendakazi mzuri. Performance yao ni nzuri sana. Nina hakika wamekuja kutembea hapa Bunge wakati huu na wametembea sehemu zingine hapa Nairobi. Hii italeta matunda zaidi. Tutawaona wakishine. Karibuni sana Bungeni. Karibuni Nairobi. Mkienda huko…

Asante mama Ruweida. Mbunge wa Chesumei, umeniomba pia nikupe dakika moja. Chukua dakika moja kukaribisha shule yako. Give Hon. Paul the microphone. You are off target, Clerk-at-the-Table.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. Let me take this opportunity, on behalf of the great people of Chesumei, to welcome the two schools from Nyali and my school from Chesumei Constituency. St Lukes is

known for very good performance. It is a school in Nandi County. Although the infrastructure is not very good - I will call upon you to come and assist us there, Hon. Speaker - they are very good in performance. I also congratulate the teachers for the good performance. I take note of the head teacher who was given an award. Thank you so much, head teacher, Mrs. Kiptoo, and all the Chesumei frater…

Thank you, Hon. Paul. Next Order.

Hon. Karemba, the Papers you are supposed to lay and the Notice of Motion you are supposed to give are time-bound. Try and check with the Table Office and the Clerk’s Office to see where they are so that I can give you an opportunity to prosecute them. Next Order.

I am sorry, Clerks-at-the-Table, we will move back kidogo. Hon. Chege had asked me for an opportunity to make a personal statement. Hon. Sabina, I want to caution you that if there is anything to do with your suspension or the fracas that occurred here, I will stop you. I do not want any drama anymore.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I am grateful that I am back. I will not go into the details of how I went away from this House. Tom Peters said, “Great leaders do not create followers, they create more leaders.” We must know that we are all called to speak and to inspire future leaders. This is not a statement about myself but about parliamentary decorum. It is a statement about protecting the politica…

say "People only throw stones at a tree with good fruits." That way, we expect that we will keep on fighting for the space of the Jubilee Party. I want to thank my colleagues, leaders and the people of Kenya who have supported me during this unnecessary ordeal. I thank all Members of Parliament for trusting and supporting the party as we deal with the unfortunate incident. The people of Kenya loo…

Thank you, Hon. Sabina Chege. I hope the male Members seated behind you have heard you. Next Order.

Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion: THAT, taking into consideration the findings of the Departmental

Commission Act, 2011 and Section 8 (1) of the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act, 2011, this House rejects the appointment of Dr Phyllis Wambui Wagacha as a member of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

Thank you, Hon. Karemba. Hon. Members, allow me to acknowledge students from Chebwai SDA Secondary School from Malava, Kakamega County, who are seated in the Speaker’s Gallery. Hon. Members, you should have the courtesy of welcoming students to the House of Parliament. Member for Malava, Hon. Malulu Injendi, I will give you one minute to salute your school.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I take this opportunity to welcome the students of Chebwai SDA Secondary School from Malava. Please, feel welcome as you get the feel of Parliament. You are a great school. This is one of the top- performing schools in my constituency. I also take this opportunity to welcome the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) who are also in the Speaker’s Gallery. Thank you.

Thank you, Hon. Injendi. On my behalf and that of the House of Parliament, I join you in welcoming Chebwai SDA Secondary School to the House of Parliament. Feel welcome. Next Order. Order, Members. You may be upstanding.

THAT, Clause 5 of the Bill be amended in sub clause (7) by deleting—

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I wholeheartedly support additional allocations to the county governments, but as we speak about giving them additional funds, this House must relook at the county governments. I want to speak candidly, and not only about Kirinyaga County. We know that our health sector was devolved when we got the 2010 Constitution. However, if you go to hospitals in our count…

On a point of information. The Temporary Chairlady : Order, Hon. Njeri. Do you wish to be informed by Hon. CNN?

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

No. I do not wish to be informed. The Temporary Chairlady : Order, Hon. CNN. Continue.

[(Hon. Charles Nguna stood in his place)]

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Hon. Temporary Chairlady, I am an advocate of the High Court. There is nothing that Hon. CNN can inform that I do not know.

[(Laughter)]

We must ensure we ruthlessly oversee county governments. There is a lot of pilferage and wastage. We must ensure that the Senate has the capacity to interrogate whatever is happening in county governments. It cannot be that when we ask questions as we play our oversight role, people say that we are fighting governors. This is our Government. It is the Government of the people of Kenya. We must exe…

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady for giving me this chance. First, I must say that I support the amendments specifically because we are providing for fertiliser subsidy. This is very important because agriculture is a key plank of our Government. It is equally important for industrial parks. These are things that will give our people and our jobless youths employment. I support it. I, however,…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I rise to support the amendment proposed by the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. This will ensure that we give more money to the county governments and enable them execute their mandate given by the 2010 Constitution. On the same premise, county governments should be more accountable now that we are sending more resources to the counties. T…

[(Several Members stood along the aisle)]

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

I support. The Temporary Chairlady : Thank you. Hon. Donya Dorice from Kisii County.

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I support… Hon. CNN, please. I support this because when county governments are funded and their resources added, we must see value for that money. When I go to Kisii County and visit any of the hospitals, I must feel it. I should find medicines and personnel there and everything should be done in order. The water structure in Kisii County must be felt. We no l…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I rise to support this particular amendment with respect to Homa Bay County where we have several conditional grants; Ksh124 million for medical equipment; Ksh250 million for industrial parks; Ksh165 million for fertiliser subsidy; and I think Ksh14 million for livestock. Homa Bay County is well endowed agriculturally, and with the current administrat…

the able leadership of Governor Wanga, these grants will go a long way to help us realise our agricultural potential as well as nascent industrial park. In fact, we are very happy with these additional grants and we look forward to working very closely with the national Government to actualise the benefits that our people will get. With those few remarks, I fully support. The Temporary Chairlady…

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I also stand to support the amendment. Sometimes we have seen counties struggling here and there for lack of resources. As I support, I call for accountability in the use of the resources that we are adding to the counties. Thank you for this opportunity. I support. The Temporary Chairlady : Thank you. First Schedule The Temporary Chairlady : Mover.

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

[(Question, that the words to be left out be left out, put and agreed to)]

[(Clause 5 as amended agreed to)]

[(Clauses 6, 7, and 8 agreed to)]

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

THAT, the First Schedule to the Bill be deleted and substituted therefor with the following new Schedule —

We had budgeted for Ksh4.7 billion that was to go to industrial and aggregation centers. The essence of this was to allocate Ksh100 million to each of the 47 counties. Being a responsible Government and a responsible Committee, we saw it fit not to have multi-tier projects. It is better to have few that will have a turn-around period of, say, one year maximum. Therefore, we scaled down these aggre…

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I thank the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee for considering the aggregation centres and allocating them Ksh250 million and also fertiliser. For the first time, Kilifi County and other coastal counties have money for fertiliser. I also note that it is only the coastal counties that have been denied money for the aggregation centres. I do not …

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Through you, let Hon. Ndindi Nyoro listen to what I am saying. I do not know whether it is by default or design that the coastal counties have been denied money for aggregation centres. It is actually at the Coast that we need these aggregation centres. This is bad politics that my county, Kilifi, has been denied aggregation. Others that have been denied are Kwale, Taita Taveta and Tana River. All…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

[(Question, that the words to left out be left out, put and agreed to)]

[(Question, that the words to be inserted in place thereof be inserted, put and agreed to)]

THAT, the Fourth Schedule be deleted and substituted therefore with the following new schedule —

S/NO. COUNTY Livestock Value Chain Support Project De-Risking and Value Enhancement (DRIVE) Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio- Economic Development (KEMFSED) TOTALS Machakos 35,809,200 Makueni 21,485,520 63,341,980

As I sit, let me clarify to Members that the issue of Ksh250 million per county is not an issue of the Committee. It was agreed upon by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) . So, the governors are aware. The Temporary Chairlady : Hon. Makali Mulu.

[(Question of the amendment proposed)]

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I support the amendment. As I support it, in situations where not all counties are benefiting, it is important we mainstream regional balancing so that we appear to be considering all the regions. The Deputy Leader of the Majority Party said that counties at the Coast were not considered. It is important we have regional balance in situations where grants are n…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you very much. While I support this amendment, we need to be very careful. Based on what Hon. Baya asked, we must say clearly where this money will go and what it will do. We have aggregated money to counties as if these counties are going to do the same thing and as if they are on the same level of development. For that reason, whereas this is already a done deal and I do not want to challe…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I also support the amendment. We always say counties are unique and dynamic. If we do not realign and state what the money is going to do, that is how a lot of wastage will occur in the counties. We know that if Senators are not going to realign some of these things the way many of our colleagues have talked about regional balance, we are going to have a lot of …

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you Chair, I support this amendment, but I would like to add that let the counties that have benefitted now give an opportunity to the other counties so that they may benefit too. I noticed that Kitui County has benefited through the Livestock Value Chain Support Project. Although the money is little as indicated in the Schedule, I think it is a step in the right direction. Thank you, Hon. T…

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Yes. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I support this Bill. I want to speak about additional money to counties. It is an advantage and a privilege for our people. They stand to benefit. How I wish governors could realise the importance of this project and implement it. I can see Kisii County has benefited from the Livestock Value Chain Support Project. It has been allocated money to the tune of…

I support. The Temporary Chairlady (Hon. Martha Wangari): Member for Nairobi City County, Hon. Esther Passaris.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I would like to say that the impact of devolution has not been felt ever since we devolved to counties and started putting resources to them. If it had, we would not have had the number of hustlers we have now. As I support the allocation to counties, the one thing I like is the matching. When you ask counties to match, you are telling them to own responsibilit…

[(Question, that the words to be left out be left out, put and agreed to)]

[(Question, that the words to be inserted in place thereof be inserted, put and agreed to)]

[(Fourth Schedule as amended agreed to)]

[(Clause I agreed to)]

[(Hon. Martha Wangari)]

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Chairlady. I beg to move that the Committee do report to the House its consideration of the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill (National Assembly Bill No.23 of 2023) and its approval thereof with amendments.

[(Question proposed)]

[(Question put and agreed to)]

[(The House resumed)]

Chairperson, on the Public

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to report that a Committee of the whole House has considered the Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill (National Bill No. 16 of 2023) and approved the same with amendments.

Thank you very much. Mover.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Committee in the said Report and request Hon. Makali Mulu to second the Motion for agreement with the Report of the Committee of the whole House.

Hon. Makali Mulu.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. As I second, I want to assure Kenyans that this House is going to make sure that we work on the public debt that is of concern to them. Where a debt is taken by this Government, we shall make sure it benefits Kenyans across the country. I second.

Thank you very much.

[(Question proposed)]

Put the Question!

Do I put the Question? Third Reading

[(Question put and agreed to)]

Hon. Members, I call upon the Mover.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move that the Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 16 of

I second that we move from the debt ceiling of Ksh10 trillion to 55 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) net present value. Thank you.

Thank you very much

[(Question proposed)]

Put the Question!

I will now put the Question having confirmed that there is requisite quorum in the House to make a decision.

[(Question put and agreed to)]

(The Bill was accordingly read a Third Time and passed)

Chairperson, on the second Bill.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to report that a Committee of the whole House has considered the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill (National Assembly Bill No.23 of 2023) and approved the same with amendments.

The Mover of the Bill.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I beg to move that this House do agree with the Report of the Committee of the whole House on its consideration of the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill (National Assembly Bill No.23 of 2023) . I request the Member of Parliament for Gatanga, who is also doing a very good job, Hon. Wakili Muriu, to second.

Hon. Temporary Speaker, I rise to second the Motion to add more money to counties. In the spirit of devolution, we intended to ensure that development devolves from the bottom at the counties, going up. I second this Bill because allocating more money, especially on aggregation in the counties, is the way to go. This will ensure that our farmers get value for their money, create employment at coun…

Thank you very much. Yes, Leader of the Majority Party.

[(Question proposed)]

Hon. Temporary Speaker, now that I did not contribute in Third Reading, allow me to just mention two things: One on county aggregation centres. As much as we are allocating all this money to county aggregation and value addition centres, we must, as Members have said, ensure that all our governors, not just in these 18 counties that are getting money this time, but even the other close to 30 count…

construction of county headquarters. I want to ask the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriation Committee that during review of the budget implementation of 2023/2024, he must put the State Department for Public Works to task so that construction of the said headquarters is completed. Wananchi need to start enjoying services rendered from offices that have been built through taxpayers’ money. I b…

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Bill. Let me thank the Budget and Appropriation Committee because Kathwana, county headquarters of Tharaka Nithi, has been allocated Ksh103 million. I confirm that. As stated by Leader of the Majority Party, it is true that the office has been standing there as a monument for the last 10 years. We now hope that with the Ksh103 mi…

Thank you, Hon. Murugara. Third Reading

[(Question put and agreed to)]

Mover!

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I beg to move that the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 23 of 2023) , be now read a Third Time. I also request the very able, articulate, and knowledgeable Vice-Chairlady of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Member of Parliament for Teso South, to second.

Thank you, Chairman for that very… I do not know what to say. I feel humbled. Thank you for that introduction. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I second the Bill. As I second, allow me to say two things because I did not get time to speak during the Second Reading. I support this Bill and want to speak on one of the aspects, especially the one reducing the number of counties where aggregated centres and i…

for them to access fertiliser. I am sure these Members are ready to partner with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to ensure that we have stores in every sub county. I second.

Put the Question!

Hon. Members, before I put the Question, I will give Hon. Makilap an opportunity. Did you intend to speak? You may take your seat. Having confirmed that we have quorum present in the House for decision making, I will now put the Question. Hon. Charles Kamuren, are you in the House?

[(Hon. Joseph Makilap spoke off record)]

[(Question put and agreed to)]

[(The Bill was accordingly read a Third Time and passed)]

Yes.

Please, move the Motion.