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{
    "id": 1292125,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1292125/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Veronica Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "and that it is subjected to other relevant laws in Kenya that then limits the loans and grants that are sent to whatever level of government, including, the county Governments. That is so that it does not open the brackets and the percentages of the amounts of loans or grants. Grants are not limited but the loans need to be conditioned to the set limits that are spelt out under the relevant laws in Kenya. I believe this is a Bill that is long overdue. While it provides for many functions in the county, I believe it is one that now forms a basis for establishing a better mechanism to monitor and oversight on how these funds are spent. Since this sends additional allocations to the counties, there is always the risk in our county governments of these funds being misused. I am looking at some of the funding being sent to the building of the county headquarters. We have several counties where the headquarters have not been completed 13 years since the commencement of devolution concept in Kenya. The question is: Why have these headquarters not been completed? What goes wrong and what is the end date for the completion? With such a Bill, one of the limits it should set now, because it is not year one after devolution commenced in Kenya, is an end date for all the counties to complete their county headquarters. This is so that, we do not have additional funds being allocated for construction and completion of county headquarters. When we visit, we still find that those headquarters are not completed. A case in point is Turkana County where we have just come from. We looked at the Turkana County Government offices. They were small semi-permanent cubicles. The question one asks themselves is why has it taken these many years for those headquarters to be completed? We could see a very impressive structure being constructed but it has not been utilised by the Turkana people for the many years it has not been completed. My proposal is that, even as funding is allocated to the county headquarters named in the Schedule in this Bill, we should always have an end date for their completion. If they are not completed within the period that is set after that allocation is done, then there should be financial penalties accruing to the delays. It should be just akin to building contracts where if a construction is not completed within the time spelt out in that contract. If it is the contractor who has delayed and funding has been provided, then, they pay penalties which are quantified in terms of money. I believe if we have to encourage counties to be more expedient in their management of resources, then we should be including sanctions within such Bills so that any county government that fails to comply with that model, then starts to lose the funding. People will then understand whether the people managing those counties are qualified or not, or they are just not able to deliver the projects that are needed by the people. I have also looked at the Schedule attached to the Bill that shows how the Kshs5 billion on fertiliser has been disbursed to the various counties. I have noted that some counties, maybe those that are agricultural based, have benefited a lot from the subsidy. I have also noted that some of the counties did not benefit much because maybe, they did not appropriate this benefit that was accruing to the counties. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}