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{
    "id": 583929,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/583929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "With regard to processing of legislation in the counties, there is a Constitution limitation. We appreciate this. This afternoon the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Review headed by Sen. Murkomen and Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., presented and tabled a report. Having looked at the report, one of the elements that we have pointed out as an issue that requires constitutional amendment is to expand the interpretation of the Gazette to include the county gazette and the Kenya Gazette . That is an appreciation of the fact that we now have 47 county governments in this country. We now have 47 legislative bodies serving our 47 counties. We need to provide them with an opportunity and give them the autonomy to process their legislation in a much more effective and efficient way. That is why the proposed provisions to relook at the interpretation of the Kenya Gazette as something that needs to be addressed. This Bill has received some bit of resistance from the Government printer. We appreciate that the Government Printer raised some valid concerns but we made it clear that this Bill does look at legislations alone. We have many documents, information and issues that require publication in our counties. The Constitution, the County Government Act and the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act provide a framework on how county governments develop their budgets. One of the key components is that members of the public must be engaged. There has to be public participation. However, as we speak, counties have to forward their Bills and proposed county budgets to the Government Printer in Nairobi for publication. Knowing that the national Government Printer in Nairobi serves the national Government, national Parliament and the 47 counties, it is unable to meet the demand of the counties. I mentioned that one of the counties in this country, that is Bomet, had to publish their county budget in some commercial publisher in Nairobi because there was delay in the publication of their budget by the Government Printer. These are some of the serious challenges that some of our counties go through. It is only last month that a section of our county health workers went on strike because they had not been paid. When we approached the Controller of Budget and the National Treasury, we realized that the Nandi County Budget had not been published by the Government Printer. That delay led to the delay in the transfer of our fair share of resources to the County Government of Nandi to pay salaries and other essential services. We must deal with and address this concern. Mr. Speaker, Sir, a number of issues were raised when this Bill was committed to the Committee on Information and Technology. The Committee raised a number of issues that need The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}