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{
"id": 1078417,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078417/?format=api",
"text_counter": 541,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM-K",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Maanzo",
"speaker": {
"id": 2197,
"legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
"slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
},
"content": "and I can assure you that when you go to Makueni, you will get sweet oranges. What is left after local businesspeople have sold them to Nairobi and other markets is supposed to be processed by a fruit processing plant which is in the county. This plant has its own difficulties. When it first started during its construction, it was good. If you check in almost every county in Kenya, the money they have already received is averagely Kshs60 billion. Averagely, every county, in the last eight or nine years, has received Kshs60 billion. If you compare the works being done in the counties with the works being done in the constituencies with the NG-CDF, which is Kshs100 million per year, you will find more development done by the NG-CDF than the development done by the people who receive money in billions of shillings. If you look at development, you find that NG-CDF, with much less money, has performed much better than the counties. If you move around and try to take stock of what Kshs60 billion has done, you will realise that counties have only utilised about Kshs10 billion and Kshs50 billion is lost to corruption. We did not sufficiently devolve the agency which fights corruption in this country, namely, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). So, we need to invest more in EACC. We also need to have more training, so that we have more credible teams which work with the governors. Otherwise, a lot of money cannot be accounted for. I believe that if proper investigation is done and the EACC and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) were to move with high speed, most of the governors will end up in jail together with their cronies. Most of the money we have sent to the counties have been stolen. If I were the Cabinet Secretary or the Principal Secretary for the National Treasury or a member of his team, I would grow lethargy. The right thing is not happening with devolution in Kenya. As much as the BBI is proposing to increase the money sent to the counties, honestly, it is going to create more trouble. There will be more problems if we send more money and we are not putting sufficient structures to check the governors. Most of the county assemblies are captives of the governors. So, you find that county assemblies cannot check the governors properly. We must put it in law that county assemblies are independent and they should not receive money through governors. If the channel is through the governors, then county assemblies will be starved of money. Governors have already been starved of money by the national Government. When the money gets to the county, county assemblies are starved. County assemblies have been reduced into mere bulldogs which cannot bite. So, we need county assemblies which have teeth that can bite through checking and thoroughly scrutinising every development programme, so that development takes place at the counties. Most of the money allocated to the counties does not end up in development. It ends up in a lot of other things like public participation which is not really public participation, mismanagement of the funds, unnecessary travels and conventions, et cetera . I believe that work must be done first before they go to conventions or travel. There must be something tangible. As much as a lot of money has been allocated for roads in the counties we, Members of Parliament, still have to plead with the CS, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, for something extra to do a road which is classified as a county road because wananchi are suffering and there is a lot of trouble there. As a Member of Parliament, you also feel that there is trouble if you are to do some of the things which are supposed to be done by the county governments like water projects. As a Member of Parliament, you cannot let your village continue suffering the way you suffered when you were a child if you lived there, for instance, the way children used to fetch water using donkeys instead of having piped water like today. So, you will have to make an effort. 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."
}