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{
    "id": 1152552,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1152552/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 95,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "vulnerable groups, so that they get opportunities to also do business with the Government and see the fruits of devolution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Kenyans will always find ways of going around things. Even when we have such a progressive law, you will still find there is away that they try to beat the system. I have heard stories from my colleagues in the legal profession who respond to invitations from public entities, including county governments. For example, they may require a tender to be included in the panel of law firms that should provide services to our county governments, but you will never be instructed. You will find there is blue-eyed law firms that will always get work from the counties and paid promptly. As we discuss about this Bill, we should propose an amendment so that it is rotational. We should put it in the law that you should give work to professionals on a rotational basis. For example, if you have 10 firms of surveyors procured to provide survey services to Nairobi City County Government by my good friend Sen. Sakaja, who wants to be governor of Nairobi City County, you should allow them to render services on a rotational basis. Today if you get work and give it to firm A, tomorrow you can give it to firm B. That way, all of them get an equal opportunity to do business with that public entity. Mr. Speaker Sir, where the situation is appalling where we need serious intervention, is this requirement of each public entity giving 30 per cent of contracts to women, youth and Persons with Disability (PWDs). We get questions from the people we represent because they believe that it is Senators who should oversight county governments. I do not know what we will do. Maybe we need to ask the Attorney-General (AG) to do aggressive public education forums in all counties. This will help our people to understand that the provisions of Article 185 of the Constitution, place the first obligation of oversight on our Members of County Assemblies (MCAs). They are the ones who should take their governors to task as to whether they have complied with this law of awarding 30 per cent of contracts to women, youths and PWDs. Last week on Thursday, I was privileged to have a group of several women whom I had organized a training for in Tombe Girls in Nyamira County. When I mentioned the opportunities that are there for them to do business with the counties, they asked me to ask any of the women present to raise their hands if they had ever got an opportunity to do business with Nyamira county government. About eight women had registered companies and had applied many times to do business with Nyamira county government. However, they had never been given an opportunity. The same thing happened to another group that I was meeting on Friday, at the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) church within the center of Nyamira County. The same thing; they never get these opportunities. I appeal to our governors to be sensitive and even sympathetic to these groups of persons who are disadvantaged and vulnerable in society. Any time you empower women, you are actually eradicating poverty from many households. Any income a woman gets, at the end of the day, it is utilized towards uplifting either the education of their children or feeding families. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}