Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1063300,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1063300/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 292,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatangi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 646,
        "legal_name": "Paul Kimani Wamatangi",
        "slug": "paul-kimani-wamatangi"
    },
    "content": "should share the projects that they have and the areas of concern, so that there is that symbiotic concurrence and implementation of projects. The other issue that I may want to highlight as a Member of the Senate, the House that is empowered by Article 96 of the Constitution is on the question of prudent expenditure of resources. We have to urge county governments to ensure that they prioritize usage of these funds to the most needy sectors of the economy of our county governments beginning with health, especially at this time when the country is battling COVID-19 pandemic. Madam Temporary Speaker, supposing we did not have the funds that were being availed to county governments as special funds, what would happen? That must be a learning process for county governments to ensure that with the resource they get now, they have to start thinking and planning independently. This is because it is unpredictable how this virus will behave after. They should be prepared. We should have an end to this question of there being riots, revolts and strikes by health workers in county governments, including doctors and nurses. This is something that county governments must think about and deal with from their own internal planning. It takes resources. That is the main bone of contention. In agriculture, if we would be urging anything important to our county governments, it is to ensure that they enrich and enhance their core. Which means that each county government should be looking at its strength. In a county government where the mainstay of their people is livestock farming, that is where the county government should focus. Are we going to employ our resources and what do we need to do to make this better? If it is an agricultural county, for example, like Uasin Gishu and other areas, people grow maize. Think out and ask yourself how can we empower our people? Madam Temporary Speaker, in my own county of Kiambu where people are small-scale farmers and business people, what is it that the county government should do to deploy those resources to empower, multiply and build capacity for the people at county governments? This is what we need to be talking about as we are encourage our county governments to ensure that these resources are spent prudently. On the question of corruption, this is a subject that we can never exhaust. From the COVID-19 funds that were allocated to county governments that should be utilized to fight the corona virus diseases, the Report of the Auditor-General has not only been loud, but also vindictive that these funds have been not only misused, plundered, it has been stolen out rightly. It worries me to think that as we have continuously complained here as a House, we sit behind the process such that we can never stop the crime. However, it is worse that the Auditor-General’s Report is now the only tool that is used to fight corruption. It is the only report that people wait for to adjudge how counties are working. It is in this respect that I loud my colleagues in this House. I know we have worked under very difficult circumstances. Since inception, the Senate in 2013 up to today, we have never had a single penny allocated to the Senate to fight and ensure that oversight is carried out properly. Nevertheless, Senators have done the best they could under the circumstances. We should get out of our way and start asking ourselves, what else we are supposed to do"
}