Plot to reject budget for hospitals

Senators and MPs are headed for a fresh clash over the Division of Revenue Bill, this time on the allocation of funds for the former provincial hospitals that serve more than one county.

In its amendments on the Bill, the Senate has demanded that the national government provides an additional Sh3.74 billion to the counties for Level Five hospitals.

This would be outside the Sh226.66 billion allocation to the devolved units.

However, the Parliamentary Budget and Appropriations Committee has criticised the idea, with its chairman, the Reverend Mutava Musyimi asking MPs to show up in large numbers when the amendments are considered so as to shoot them down.

House rules require that for the National Assembly to overturn a decision from the Senate, there must be at least two thirds of MPs—233 members—in the House to vote on the proposal.

Rev Musyimi has notified MPs of the urgency of the matter.

“My committee has met to discuss this issue of Division of Revenue Bill in regard to a communication that has come to us from the Senate, and I hope that all of us, not just two thirds, will be here to prosecute this matter,” he told MPs last week.

If the amendments to the Division of Revenue Bill are shot down, the proposed law could be referred to a mediation committee of members of the two Houses.

This means that the allocation of money to counties could be delayed as the Houses wrangle.

According to minutes from the Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting, MPs on the team have also been critical of the Senate.
“Members stated that Senate’s decision was a conspiracy to cut down on national government programmes and indeed they acted in bad faith and insincerely,” the committee said in a report the Rev Musyimi tabled.

In the original Bill, an allocation of Sh226.66 billion had been made to counties, of which Sh3.65 billion was for the Rural Electrification Authority, Sh3.74 billion for Level 5 hospitals and Sh1.45 billion for youth polytechnics.