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{
    "id": 1072700,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072700/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "the warring parties from Wajir County; that is, the County Assembly and the Executive led by the Governor. I have had opportunity to read through largely the report that has been brought by the Members of the select Committee that we approved. First of all, we must appreciate the difference in terms of the thoroughness of the work that has been done by this Committee and sometimes when we choose to conduct impeachment trials by Plenary. I must commend the Committee for a job well done. If you read through the report, you get a sense of the intrigues of the challenges that bedeviled the County of Wajir under the leadership of the Governor that is before this House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is proper that as a House of the Senate, we look back to the journey that we have travelled as a nation before setting up of the systems of devolution and the clamour for it. In that in the previous elections before the 2013 General Elections, devolution was a big electoral question. It split the country into half with the centralists versus those who believed in the dispersion of resources from the centre. With the arrival of devolution, the fortunate thing that you will notice is that there is a unanimous agreement across the country wherever you move in this Republic that it was the right thing to do. However, we must guard that gain so jealously bearing in mind that many of the citizens of this country at this point and time are disillusioned with the promise of devolution eight years down the line. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is because you could remove the name of Wajir County from this Report and insert any other county of the 47 and you will find all of these issues that are being raised by the County Assembly to be true if not worse of the state of devolution in our various county governments. Therefore, the question that we face this evening as the Senate is: What do we do with the case that has been brought before us? I do not agree with my colleague Sen. M. Kajwang’ who says that finding the Governor guilty on one of the 17 charges is a kin to cutting the leg of a cow and leaving it to bleed to death and believing that that is justifiable punishment. I want to believe that there is a preponderance of evidence that has been brought before us, even as you lead up to that one particular charge, that points to a county government that is not well run to a county government where the executive treats the people with contempt. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have been given the evidence that despite the fact that the law may not be so specific on how, for example, the timeline with which a County Budget Economic Forum (CBEF) should be established by a county governor, a good governor and somebody who cares about the interest of the people that voted him into office should be diligent enough to have established such a forum. Unless the governor before us does not understand what is the importance of a CBEF. It is about devolution. This is the avenue where the citizens of a county gather and say these are our key economic priorities. Unfortunately, many county governments have not established this forum, and the fault perhaps fall on many of us especially those of us who serve in the Committee on Finance and Budget. This is not the first impeachment report that is recommending to the Senate that we need to stipulate the timeliness. However, as a county governor popularly elected, that you moved around, set out a vision, shared with the people of a particular county what you intend to do for them, you want to tell me with a few months to run in office, if up to this point you have not formed the platform upon which people can evaluate your economic policies and see if it makes sense to them---"
}