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{
"id": 1245442,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1245442/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13199,
"legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, you have defended me, so that is fine. Let me just continue. The two things which Sen. Cheruiyot has mentioned that I want to put emphasis on, is the role of the Senate on matters devolution. I think if we do not get that right, then anything else that we do will be in vain. Without mentioning names because there is no need to, I was a bit taken aback when we were debating the Equalisation Fund Bill. Some Senators said that they were not going to vote for it because their counties were not included. If we take that route, then, instead of defending devolution, we will just kill it. If a substantial number of counties benefit from our work, then those counties do not have to be the counties that have sent us here. That is success of devolution and we must all be proud of counties benefiting from our work. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue is what this Committee has done on the matter of horizontal sharing of revenue among the 47 counties, of course as guided by the Third Basis. There has been a debate, which is coming up again and therefore, we must be cautious - the one-man, one-vote and one-shilling debate. I am happy that we ring fenced the matter of land area index in the Third Basis. Every conversation that we are going to have on the sharing of resources to our counties, must always take into account one-man, one-vote, one-shilling, one-kilometer. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is something that we call distance to service. The amount of money, time, personnel and vehicle that you spend to deliver drugs in the furthest end of Marsabit County must count for the money that is allocated to that county. It is very easy to distribute drugs in an hour’s time, to 50 hospitals here in Nairobi. There are other counties where it will take a whole month to distribute the same drugs to the same number of health facilities. Therefore, the issue of distance to service as captured in land area index is an important one. For that reason, we should not lose out on that as this debate begins to reemerge. Mr. Speaker, Sir, coming back to CARA for 2023, it is ridiculous. I want the Chairperson, and Vice-Chairperson to take note that there are certain things which we have to deal with going forward. One of those issues is pursuing an almost absolute autonomy of the County Assemblies from the Executives. We ought to move beyond just an amendment of the Second Schedule and endeavor to ensure that once the Assemblies defend their budgets and their budgets are passed and approved, then, they should be fully in charge of their budgets, without making any reference whatsoever to the Executive. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the debate on the matter that was brought here by Sen. Cherargei from Nandi, on salaries and allowances of Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), is alive today. I was a speaking to the Minority Leader in the County Assembly"
}