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{
    "id": 1057720,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1057720/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 62,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM–K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to this important Bill; the County Statutory Instruments Bill (Senate Bill No.21 of 2018). When you look at this Bill, it is a 2018 Bill and we are in 2021. That means it has been doing rounds for about three years and that is why I do not agree with the Members who are saying that it is a timely Bill. This Bill should have been passed a long time ago. If you look at the design of the county assemblies and Parliament, the National Assembly is supposed to be a replica of county assemblies, so that what we do in this House is also done on the ground at the county level. The good thing is that we have the Bill with us as the National Assembly. I want to thank the HBC for allocating time for this important Bill. Delegated legislation is something that the House has benefited the country with. Cabinet Secretaries and CECs at the county level, to some extent, have a window that they can participate in legislation. What is critical is that through this Bill, county assemblies will have a way to ensure that, that delegated authority is not abused and it is used for the benefit of the counties. Regulations provide an operational framework, so that when a law is passed, the nitty gritty details of how to operationalise it may not be captured by the main law. What happens is that through the regulations, you are able to capture more details. As a result of that, you will realise that in terms of implementing, there is a clear structure of how to implement some of the issues that have been agreed in the law. The challenge that we have been facing both at national and county level is the issue of public participation. That is the issue Hon. Millie and Hon. 001 mentioned. If we get it right in public participation, there will be inclusion and everybody will have a sense of belonging from giving their input. We all know that there are a number of Bills on public participation from the Senate that are still doing rounds and we have not finalised them. It is time we passed a law that focuses on public participation, so that we have a clear legal framework on how to conduct public participation. Women, people living with disabilities, the elderly and other marginalised groups will have a sense of belonging, inclusion and participation. To me, that is critical. The other issue is that county governments are unique in their own sense. If, for example, you visit the County Government of Kitui and the County Government of Mandera, they have unique needs. County assemblies are expected to provide a legal framework that will assist county governments to address the needs of their people. One of the cross-cutting issues is own-revenue generation. Every county in this country collects money other than the money they receive from the national Government, the so-called equitable share. One of the challenges we face is that despite county governments collecting money, there are a lot of gaps in terms of how to collect the money and how to use it. These days most county governments collect much lower amounts of money compared to the defunct local authorities. You ask yourself how come county governments are not able to collect much more as compared to the defunct local authorities. It is basically because some county assemblies have not The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}