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{
    "id": 110975,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/110975/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Balala",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Tourism",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 9,
        "legal_name": "Najib Mohamed Balala",
        "slug": "najib-balala"
    },
    "content": "Delegation, Devolution – name it! The most important thing is to address the issue of the culture of impunity. The minute you remove empowerment from the people at the grassroots level, you have allowed the political elite at the centre to practice the culture of impunity. That is why in some areas, the elite at the centre overrun some of those areas. When we talk about land grabbing, look at the areas where land grabbing has taken place, both at the Coast and in the Rift Valley. Those are the victims of the centralization of the system. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important for us to recognize and be sensitive to the wishes and desires of the people at the local level. We are not going to achieve much development if we ignore the people at the grassroots level. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important for us to start thinking objectively on a devolved system which is going to empower our people both economically and politically. That is why we had eight provinces before. I will support the regional system of eight provinces, but also I appreciate that there are some regions which are too big and because of the difference of community interests, we need to address those issues. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will recommend that we support a 25-region structure and, particularly, when we talk about regions. It is because we have changed the system of Government from a parliamentary system or a mixed system between parliamentary and presidential, which is currently in place; it is a corrupted system. I think it is important for us, when we bring a pure presidential system with separation of powers, then it is important for us to have levels of checks and balances. The only structures that can do the checks and balances are the regions Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can see that in the proposed Constitution, we have the counties. Out of the experience of county councils and the old districts, they are too weak in terms of infrastructure and capacity. That is because we have not developed them. The presidential system will overrun the counties. It is important for us to consider the regions. Do not be deceived or get worried about the creation of a Senate. We need to have a Senate to check the Executive at the national level; we need to have senators who are going to protect the counties and the regions at the lower levels. So it is important for us to have 25 regions and a strong Senate with legislative powers. It must be able to counter the legislation coming from the National Assembly. We are creating a Constitution not for the current Parliament. Some of us would like to be in the Executive or occupy the presidency seat tomorrow. Some of us would like to serve in the Senate as senators while some of us would like to be governors in the executive of the counties and regions. Some of us also would like to be in the National Assembly to legislate national issues. I believe that to check the presidential system and to avoid any imperial and dictatorial presidential system, we need to have a strong Senate comprising of 25 regions. Under the 25 regions, we should create counties which will address the issue of taxation as well as service delivery to the people. For the sake of addressing the interests of our communities, instead of us getting representatives from the regions to the Senate, we should now consider getting representatives from the counties to the Senate. This is a"
}