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{
    "id": 1126511,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1126511/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "which is a bit short, about a week, will give us an opportunity to now explain to our constituents what it is that we do for them in the Senate. A lot of them will say Senator hajajenga bara bara, the Senator has not built a hospital for us, Senator hakuna kitu ametuletea . Where is your development record? Senators do not give you a development record. These are things that constituents need to understand. What Senators do is to fight for you to get more money. Once you get that money the MCAs on the ground are the first point of oversight. They are the ones who have got to ensure that that money is budgeted properly and it can be spent wisely. The Senate now comes and does oversight. I think most people need to read Article 96 so that they can understand the reason why most Senators actually carry out and consider their legislative job their number one priority. It will also be important for us to interact with the MCAs who will also be in this Devolution Conference. One of the biggest problems that county assemblies have is the issue of lack of autonomy in their financial dealings. This is because all county assemblies depend on the executive for them to be given their money. Our colleagues in the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC) today had a meeting with the County Assembly of Narok. The county assembly told the CPAIC that of their biggest problem is that they do not have financial autonomy. When you ask them why the pending bills have accumulated so much they tell you that they do not have the money because they never received their full exchequer releases. It will give us an opportunity to explore and interact with these MCAs and the speakers of the assemblies because they will be there. They will be invited to attend the Devolution Conference. We can also sit down and interact with them and find out what we need to do to amend the Public Finance Management Act or even try to figure out the County Governments Act so that money can be released directly to the Exchequer. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this money should be released to the county governments because under Article 217 of the Constitution, it says that a share of county revenue which has been raised by the national government shall be released without undue delay. It does not say that county governments should only operate under one treasury. Those are things that we need to debate and find a way that we can ensure that county assemblies can operate efficiently. This is an opportunity for us to share with them what we have learnt here. We have learnt a lot. We need to explain to them about this issue of county budget ceilings for the county assembly. It is important for them to know. If you look at the money that they use, for example Narok County, their budget for the county assembly is about Kshs700 million. However, they may want to do more than that. Is it possible? We will discuss these issues. Finally, it will also give us some time to reflect on what will happen in the next coming years. This issue of COVID-19 is something which is still there. It is good for us to share with our people and say: “Even though you like to hear us politicians come and lie and talk to you, just remember that you still have a responsibility to take care of yourself.”"
}