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{
    "id": 1091148,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1091148/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 96,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "collecting levies. For example, Mombasa County was taken to court for collecting levies that are now being challenged by traders. Where will counties get Own Source Revenue (OSR)? Mr. Speaker, Sir, you are aware that part of the Western Belt has gold. Should we not find a way for this money to get to the communities? In the last Parliament, the Governor of Turkana County led Turkana leaders to State House to sign what they were calling ‘sharing’. They went there and bargained on whether they should be given 10 or 15 per cent. I am 100 per cent certain that in that bargain for the 10 per cent, they never had a framework like the one proposed by Sen. (Dr.) Zani where part of it will go to the community. Chances are that this money will end up in some people’s pockets to build hotels. This is what I call primitive opulence that is synonymous with our leadership of this country. When a person becomes rich, they must build a hotel. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should ensure that our counties become reliant, do not quarrel, collaborate and exploit. The Chinese love Kenya. We were fighting on the surface when they were building the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) on the side of Makueni. Sen. Olekina took me to a place on the SGR in Narok and I was shocked. That railway is going nowhere. In fact, it has begun to rust because it is not being used. The people who were doing the SGR were collecting soil and rock samples. They were checking, at every point, whether the rock formation can lead to minerals. This is because they understand that a country as diverse as Kenya is bound to have minerals underground. So, when they were blasting rocks, we were complaining about the blasts. However, Sen. Mwangi was happy to take me to Thwake to complain about Thwake Dam. When they blast the rocks, they collect it to go and check. These are some of the things that we should do. We want to help our counties to build a kitty. They used to say that Tom Mboya was a bright man. However, I wonder all the time about Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965. It bothers me that he thought that some parts of the country could feed the rest. It bothers me what he was thinking at the time as our Justice Minister. It cannot be the solution. There is something about Turkana that Kenya must benefit from. There is something about Isiolo that Makueni can benefit from. There is also something about Meru, Wajir and all other places that this country can benefit from. That is the only way to integrate this country. That is why this is so important so that Kenyans can start to love their own counties and think about things that could make them rich. Kitui County has refused to explore its coal for many reasons, half of it is due to fights about what to do when the coal is exploited and other environmental concerns. However, with such a law in place, we will stop talking about the economic principles that I am hearing from theorists in the country who want leadership of this country by exploitation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the theories that are currently in the public domain can only be obtained by false pretense because they cannot last or sustain. This is the way to sustain counties by making them self-sufficient. The only time we shall discuss wheelbarrow, it is when it is non-carcinogenic from Bungoma, not any other time."
}