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{
    "id": 110608,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/110608/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Lands",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to end this contribution by saying that the most important chapter in this Constitution is about devolution. Without devolution, I can tell you, we are back to square one, because this is a presidential system. I want to be corrected in another 20 or 30 years that if we do not have devolution, the Presidency we have created is even more powerful than the current President. This is because the current President sits in the Cabinet with elected Members of Parliament. He derives membership of his Cabinet from this Parliament. He sits in Cabinet with people who relate to the people directly. This is a President who is not a Member of the Legislature. So, the only way that we can check this Presidency is through devolution. Any system – even monarchical systems – where there is a diffusion and de-concentration of power, be it in Old Germany or the Anglo Saxons, where there was devolution, you could see that not only the promises of liberty but also development could be achieved. I assure you that what we are even trying to do through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) by devolving funds is not re-inventing the wheel. There was mechanism and systems for taking funds to the districts in various programmes but there was no legal and lawful framework for accountability and representation at the lowest level. So, the CDF has made a little bit more progress than the District Commissioners (DCs) who were managing large funds but had no accountability or there was no system for interrogating them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we are creating regions or counties on the basis of ethnicity, you have missed the point about devolution. If we want to live in ethnic cocoons, devolution will not resolve our problems. Even a Member of Parliament said yesterday that Kenya is still a tribal country even as we say that we are a unitary State. Devolution is giving the promises of better governance because you are taking the administration, accountability and resources to the people. If you look at Nairobi today, the Maasai or Kikuyus can claim Nairobi today, but times have changed. Nairobi now is a metropolitan City. In another ten years, Mandera also will be a metropolitan city. So, the way to look at devolution is about governance. If at all we take this Constitution without looking at the elements of devolution properly, then I am afraid we have missed the boat. We should be very courageous and brave because in 1963, resources were going to the regions. It was not by changing the Constitution that the regions went but by starving the regions of funds and even the power to tax the regions. That is how the regions were killed. But when the regions were working, even hon. Ngala was feeling better and safer as the president of the Coast region rather than being a Member of Parliament here. The other thing that we are addressing through devolution is exclusion. What has made us suffer as a nation is exclusion. Once people feel excluded, even when you want to employ a policeman or constable or you want to build a dispensary, it must come from the centre. In the colonial days, these things were being done on the ground and they could give bursaries and build roads. I commend devolution. Those who fear devolution are living in the past. They are being guided by their ethnic consideration and objectives. They are living in the past. If America was living in a situation where they feared ethnicity and did not see itself as a multiparty state or nation, how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the President of America? It is because they did away with exclusion. What has killed us here is exclusion; that once Mr. Orengo is President, I know of no other place than Ugenya. That is why we were fighting against these many Presidencies in the past. I hope that Kenya will come of age. This country must come of age. People want freedom and nations want liberation, but countries want independence. I beg to support."
}