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{
    "id": 693969,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/693969/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 100,
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    "content": "the acting chief officer for finance from Josiah Mathenge; it was signed for the clerk of the assembly. Paragraph 2 says:- “This office has received complaints for Honorable Members that monthly party deductions to TNA and GNU parties are not being submitted despite being reflected in their pay slips.” First of all, all statutory deductions, including such deductions have been submitted. There is no evidence that any is owing. Secondly, this letter cannot be evidence of this charge that the governor has contravened the law by not remitting statutory deductions, yet this is the only evidence they submitted. That evidence cannot support that charge at all. The same applies to the allegation contained in page 28 of Volume II of the governor’s bundle. There is an allegation there that under the stewardship of the governor, the county executive committee has contravened the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act by not releasing salaries for the month of July. It is noteworthy to mention that the month of July comes at the end of the financial year; the financial year ends on 30th June. It is public knowledge and a matter which can be taken judicial notice of, under Section 60 of the Evidence Act, that there were late releases to the county governments for other reasons beyond the control of this House and the National Treasury. That, definitely, affected the salaries of everybody in the county governments and not just the MCAs. Here, it is important to emphasize that this is an operational issue that has been addressed now. Therefore, it cannot be a ground for the impeachment of a governor, because it does not meet the threshold for impeachment. On page 29 of the governor’s bundle, they say that the governor has failed to define the responsibility of every member of the county executive committee by notice in the Gazette. Again, this allegation has not been particularized. There is nothing gross here. It is also not true that the governor has not gazetted members of the county executive committees and defined their functions. There is evidence here that the governor has done the gazettement of the county executive committee members and their responsibilities. These county executive committee members were vetted by the county assembly, duly approved and appointed as it were. Therefore, this allegation is completely baseless. We have evidence in this bundle that, that was done. The other charge is at page 30. Because of time, I will flip over them and then we can get the witnesses to testify. The charge is that the governor has created a sub-county. That is not true. The county public service board, upon the request of the county executive committee member responsible, and on needs-basis, appointed two sub-county administrators, for Kieni East and Kieni West, to be in charge of one sub-county. There are two sub-county administrators who have been appointed to be in charge of a very large county in terms of population; in accordance to Article 176(2) of the Constitution. We must read the intention of the Constitution, which is to bring services closer to the people. On what basis can anyone say that the governor has violated the County Governments Act, yet the Constitution requires that services be brought closer to the people? Therefore, this charge is inaccurate. If they had said the Governor had appointed two sub-county administrators, which he did, then we would have responded to it and said it is necessary. To say that the Governor has created an extra sub-county, that is completely wrong. He has not done that. This is because Mathira is heavily populated and Kieni Constituency alone comprises 50 per cent of 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."
}