Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1245428,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1245428/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 142,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, we must stand against this and find ways. You either put a cap on like we have done on all these other things including the budget to the various County Assemblies. You know that as a county, if this is your allocation, you cannot be spending, more than a particular amount like one per cent, 1.5 per cent, 0.5 per cent on legal services. I say that because I know what goes on in our counties. I agree with our Committee on Finance and Budget when they flag out and say this is an avenue for corruption. Many of these legal services that are being paid for do that even cost that amount. It is unfortunate that the Senate has continued to condone this kind of behavior. Sen. Ali Roba, remember one of the practices we have already established in this House and in this term is that, apart from flagging out malpractices and maladies that our in counties, we must equally propose a legislative mechanism for addressing those challenges. Therefore, I expect the Budget and Finance Committee to propose and later lead this House with an amendment to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act on how this item should be handled and dealt with. If you go through all these counties, all of them have the Office of the Attorney. We passed the Office of the County Attorney Bill late in the term of the last Parliament. Despite them being the same lawyers, taught by the same professors yet for one reason or the other, you feel that you spend a better chance when you take your case to be handled by a lawyer outside the one that you have employed in the county government. Then you would rather strike out those legal units so that you use whatever you pay for salaries to be what you share with these law firms that are proposed to handle these legal cases. There are counties that have continued to submit request addition for additional staffing to various departments. The Committee notes that the Senate resolved in May 2021 and I recall very well that County Assemblies should rationalize their staff to the County Revenue Allocation (CRA) staffing capping of 100 by June 2023. To this extent, the Committee cannot allow for additional recruitment of staff to a level exceeding 100. This is one of the biggest failings of this House. I say this fully conscious as a leader knowing that we have failed and let down our people. It is not just about County Assemblies Sen. Ali Roba. There is no county today under the PFM Act that is allowed to spend over and above 35 per cent on recurrent expenditure. However, today, there is not a single county that spends less than 35 per cent on it. All of them are spending over 45 per cernt and we continue to condone this behavior. That is our failure as the Senate. We need to be moved, Sen. Ali Roba. I challenge you and your Committee to bring a Motion to this House so that we come up with recommendations so that counties begin to receive their approvals to withdraw these monies that we are devolving in the next financial year, let each county governor file a redundancy plan or an action plan on measures taken to ensure that they comply with that particular provision. Do you know what happens in our counties? A new county governor comes into office, what do they do? They hire completely new staff. Do you know what most of these staffers do? One is carrying water for the governor, another one is carrying a diary, there is another one carrying a biro pen, and there is a famous one who has been around"
}