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{
    "id": 1074658,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1074658/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 113,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I had the privilege and honour of handling this matter in various stages. First, as the Senate Majority Leader in the Senate, I was part and parcel of the Senate Business Committee when this matter came as a Petition from the County Government of Nakuru. You directed the Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations, then chaired by Sen. Kinyua to interrogate this matter. In fact, to be fair, it is the Committee chaired by Sen. Kinyua that started the bulk of the work, which was inherited later by Sen. M. Kajwang’ who is now the chair. You know what happened in this House, I was forcibly put into this Committee. I have no much objections because this is home and I used to be the chairperson. The first responsibility I had when we were elected in this House - long before Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., came here - was to be Chairperson of the Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. It is one of the most interesting moments in my life. Since being a chairperson of a committee, you do more work than when you are in a leadership position; a Whip or the Majority Leader. The crux of the work you do in this House and the legacy you leave is more pronounced in what you do in Committee than what you do as a leader of either side of the political divide. You can easily get the footprints of a committee chairperson in the Senate and fail to get the footprints of a Majority leader because that is where you do the real work. Therefore, I am privileged to be the one seconding this Motion. I dare say, after 2010 Constitution was passed, I was privileged - which I will say over again - to serve in the taskforce on devolved Government where we drafted all these laws; the Urban Areas and Cities Act and the qualification of towns, municipalities and cities. In fact, the original Bill had put a city to be having at least 500,000 inhabitants. When I was the chairperson of the Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations, we amended the same law to bring it down to 250,000 inhabitants. It was becoming unreasonable. No town in the country was going to achieve the status of a city in the nearest future. I am happy that we have reached a stage where as a Senate, at least before the end of our term we have the responsibility of considering an application from a county. I encourage county governments with towns, which have qualified to become municipalities to bring applications here before our term ends next year. I do not know how far a town like Wote has reached. I do not understand why Machakos has not qualified by this Stage to become a city. I do not think Machakos lacks less than 250,000 people. This becomes part of the work that we do in this House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not know when Iten will qualify to be a municipality. Iten is one of those towns that even in the initial qualification of a town, it never qualified to be"
}