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{
"id": 1408731,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408731/?format=api",
"text_counter": 179,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Gataya Mo Fire",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I admire what the Senator of Garissa County just stated that this House should bestow itself without responsibility or make sure that we try to rate our governors and their performance. We do not want to have some elements of Infrotrack or any other organization for that matter trying to gauge the performance of governors. It is this House that is charged with the responsibility of making sure that we rank our governors as per performance and those who are putting public money prudently. It is high time that once we devolve the money, we sometimes become mortacious because money has been squandered, money has been eaten, people have looted a lot of money all the way, and maybe after two or three years, that report will find its way to this House. It is the right time that we make sure that we are hands-on, to make sure that whatever we devolve to our counties and our governors is used prudently for the interests of those people that it is supposed to serve. I have seen many of us, even in the previous regime, come here and lament about what governors are doing, but once one becomes a governor, either from the Senate or the National Assembly, the trend is just the same. It is high time we stopped this hypocrisy and make sure that we manage what we normally say, because maybe in the next two, or three years to come, some of us here will be governors down in the respective counties. We expect a shift from the norm, where people are squandering citizens’ money and services are not rendered. It is the right time that we must practice what we preach. I support."
},
{
"id": 1408732,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408732/?format=api",
"text_counter": 180,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Omogeni, you have the Floor."
},
{
"id": 1408733,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408733/?format=api",
"text_counter": 181,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I also rise to support the Division of Revenue Bill 2024. First, we cannot, as Senators, say that we are happy with the allocation of Kshs391 billion. Certainly, our counties deserve to get more resources. The national Government continues to remain with a huge chunk of revenue that we collect nationally, and so, we must continue, agitating for county Governments to get more resources. However, the resources will, as we always say here, never be impactful unless they are used well and for the benefit of the people we represent. I do not know the experience from other counties, but for 12 years into devolution, my Governor has not tarmacked even one kilometer of a road in the county of Nyamira."
},
{
"id": 1408734,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408734/?format=api",
"text_counter": 182,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Loud consultations)"
},
{
"id": 1408735,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408735/?format=api",
"text_counter": 183,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
},
"content": "You can imagine, not even one kilometer of a road. For every money that is sent to Nyamira County, all that the governor can do is use marram. That is the only mark that we have for him, and Senator Gloria Orwoba knows that. Sen. Methu is saying I am lucky, but I do not think so. We can use this money better because tarmacking one kilometer of low-density can take up to Kshs40 million. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1408736,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408736/?format=api",
"text_counter": 184,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
},
"content": "So, if you have an allocation of Kshs400 million in one financial year, you can do up to 10 kilometers and that can transform counties. If you take a county such Nyamira, which is not huge in terms of acreage, you can do a lot. So, our governors need to wake up so that they can join the efforts of the national Government to progressively transform our counties. I am one of those lucky Senators that fiscal capacity and efficiency are not one of the perimeters we use to share revenue. If we invoked that parameter, I would immediately lose money, because, in my County of Nyamira, our accounts have moved from being qualified to adverse. I can see there is a proposal that fiscal capacity and efficiency of government be introduced as one of the parameters. We want to advise our governors to spend our money more efficiently, have more accountability and reduce wastage in our counties. They should also know that money that is sent to counties is not meant to reward relatives or friends. Last week, His Excellency the President was hosting a conference on the ballooning Wage Bill, but at the same time, in the County of Nyamira, we were shooting up our Wage Bill to wallop 71 per cent of the allocation that is given to the County Government of Nyamira. In just one financial year, we started by employing 300 people and then we added another 200 people. That is 500 people, and we are not picking children of the needy. It is just packing the county with cronies and relatives, which is very unfortunate. So, I think that there is something that we need to do as Senators. Article 254(2) says that as a Senate, we have powers to summon an independent office holder or any commission to come and give us a report as a House. It is high time that we called the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the five commissioners, and the CEO, to come here and appear before the Committee of the Whole and tell us what they are doing to deal with the corruption in our counties. You and I cannot move to our respective counties and arrest our governors. The only people who have that power are EACC, DCI, and the DPP, you know. Every day, we are speaking on this Floor saying how corrupt governors are but see no action. I heard Sen. (Dr.) Oburu give an example of Nigeria, where there is also a devolved system of government though they have states. He says many governors were locked up because of stealing public resources. However, 12 years into devolution in this beautiful country called Kenya, not even one person has gone to jail. Whereas the national Government is calling for reduction of the Wage Bill, in some counties such as Nyamira, we have ballooned our Wage Bill to take 71 per cent of the resources that we send to our counties. That is not the way to transform our country. Such a governor wants us to remain the way we are, the way the late President Moi used to say, “Mkae vivyo hivyo.” We do not want kukaa vivyo hivyo; we want our country to be transformed. We want our country to change. We want to drive to our homes through tarmac roads, not marram roads. Sixty years after independence, we need a better quality of life for our people. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1408737,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408737/?format=api",
"text_counter": 185,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
},
"content": "The vision of the government is to reduce the marram roads in our country. We will never achieve that unless the national Government and county governments share the same vision. Finally, I hope that the National Assembly will fastrack the auditing and approval of our accounts so that we move closer to dealing with audited accounts of the previous financial year. I think we are now dealing with FY2019/2020, which is a very skewed way of sharing revenue. We call upon our brothers to also fastrack the approval of the audited accounts, so that we can at least move closer in terms of the accounts that we use as a basis for sharing money. I support."
},
{
"id": 1408738,
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"text_counter": 186,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Shakila Abdalla, proceed."
},
{
"id": 1408739,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408739/?format=api",
"text_counter": 187,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Shakila Abdalla",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 380,
"legal_name": "Shakila Abdalla",
"slug": "shakila-abdalla"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to support this Bill. We all know that this House is in charge of devolution. Devolution is working. If we continue protecting it jealously, it will even work better for our people. There are some governors misappropriating funds. However, this should not be a reason for us to punish all governors because of one or two mistakes of individual governors. We are supposed oversight county governments. As we do so, we should identify loopholes, issues, challenges, and problems facing county assemblies. Since inauguration of the current Constitution, the budget of the national Government has been increasing by trillions. However, the budgets of counties are only increasing by a few billion of shillings. We need to ensure that we give more funds to counties so that they grow and develop. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there many challenges facing devolution. For example, health and agriculture functions face serious challenges in our counties. These challenges are a creation of the national Government’s failure to work harmoniously with the county governments. If they were to work together, some of these challenges would have be addressed and improved service delivery to our people in counties. When we deny county governments funds, we are killing devolution. There are delays in releasing funds to counties, which causes confusion making devolution not work as envisioned. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, by allocating more funds to county governments, we will be developing counties and strengthening devolution. The national and county governments should work hand in hand to sort out existing issues in our counties, so that devolution works properly and the results felt at the grassroots level."
},
{
"id": 1408740,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408740/?format=api",
"text_counter": 188,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Members, since no other Member is interested in contributing to this Bill, I call upon the Mover to reply."
}
]
}