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{
    "id": 1231518,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1231518/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13590,
        "legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
        "slug": "murungi-kathuri"
    },
    "content": "The Senators of this Republic have no teeth. They cannot be able to move an inch in the constituencies. The money allocated to the Senators to move in the counties is equivalent to what the Member of the National Assembly are given, approximately Kshs800,000, to cater for the interest of the constituencies. When I served South Imenti Constituency, I was given the same amount that I receive and I am supposed to oversight nine constituencies in Meru County. It means that as much as we give money to the counties, governors have a lot of leeway to spend it the way they want. It is imperative that this House should be strengthened. The same should happen to the Controller of Budget (CoB), the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), so that devolution can work. I recommend that the OAG should be domiciled in every county of this Republic. It should also be strengthened, so that they can look at the reports and expenditures of the county governments. We have a committee of this House that looks at the reports of the Auditor- General. Sometimes they are three years behind. By the time they will start looking at the audited accounts of the current leadership of the county governments, it may be towards the end of our term in this House. It is important for the Committee chaired by Sen. M. Kajwang’ to see how they can harmonize the previous years so that by the end of this financial year, we are up to date, so that we move together with the current serving governors. Every financial year, this House should examine reports of that particular financial year. Mr. Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said on whether this money is enough or not. As the Senate Majority Leader has put it, the national Government has an obligation to ensure that monies that go to the counties are released on time. There is no need of releasing money after five or four months, yet there are bills and contractors to be paid. That is why we are accumulating a lot of pending bills. As the President promised during the campaigns and now they are over, I hope this regime will be releasing money promptly to the counties. That should be done so that devolution can work. As Senators, we need to support devolution because that is our core mandate given by the Constitution. Another issue that needs to be looked at is the transfer of library services. Even though library services have been transferred to the counties, I do not think we are getting value for the money by the Kenya National Library Service (KNLS). There is one library in my county which is as old as history. I do not think there is value for money because pupils and students do not benefit from it. Those services should be relooked. Every county and constituency should have these facilities, including ICT centres and hubs. Let us have these services closer to people so that we support our people. The CoB is not able to review accounts of the counties and their expenditures. I remember when she met the Finance and Budget Committee of this House, she complained that it is not possible for her to know how counties are spending their money. They apply for money which is released. However, she cannot tell whether that money was spent based on the applications made."
}