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{
    "id": 1078418,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078418/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 542,
    "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": "In fact, when we just started in the other Parliament, we had to complete some of the projects the NG-CDF was doing in terms of hospitals, water projects and later on handed them over to county governments. Even some nursery schools have been abandoned. In one case, in Wote Town in my constituency, a nursery school was left out of public participation and they could not build enough nursery schools. Of course, it is a growing town so, we had to allocate some NG- CDF money to build one of the nursery schools which was about to collapse. I was afraid that young children who had no idea what was happening would end up losing their lives. Therefore, this is where the national Government or Members of Parliament are finding themselves yet there are county governments which should be efficient. This is not only the case in Makueni, but also in many other county governments. If you compare the money collected by county governments to what county councils used to collect, you find that county councils used to do better when the economy was poorer. Today, we have a better economy of the country with more businesses expanding and therefore collection of revenues should be at a higher level. We must surely come up with a way of how this money is going to be efficiently collected and accounted for. Most of the money ends up with employees of the counties who have not been paid their salaries for many months. How can you collect money from a lady selling bananas in the market when your own children have no food that day and you still send it to the county only to be put into another pocket of the governor? So, this is an area that we must think about as a House. I am challenging my very good friend, Hon. Kanini Kega, who is in charge of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, to challenge us to come up with a law so that we can harness all the money that is collected in the counties into proper use. I am sure all these cries you hear about lack of money in the counties will be gone. The moment their A-in-A is proper, I am sure we will not have unpaid employees of the county executive and the county assemblies. I urge the county governments to be more careful and be aware that there is a law and if they misuse funds, they will end up in jail someday."
}