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{
    "id": 1372168,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372168/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13589,
        "legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
        "slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, water is a devolved function. The Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation directs that the policy and the current Water Act of 2016 was due for amendment. The department of water has been struck by a lot of confrontations with the stakeholders. That is why their regulations never went through. In fact, they ended up in court, and right now, there is a lot of confusion. Regulations come from the Act. Now that the Act is going through amendments and we have just received this Act from National Assembly, which is a devolved function that has come to us. It would have originated from us or every House. It is very important we make sure that devolution is taken care of in this Act. Unfortunately, most of the amendments are mangled up and a professional job was most probably not done. It is important to look at each Section with a lot of keen interest. When you go to the practicality of its implementation, there are a lot of issues. In my county, there is Thwake Dam, which should have been completed years ago. However, out of mismanagement by Ministries of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation and that of National Treasury and Economic Planning, there has been postponement year after year of the completion date of this particular dam. The contractor is very frustrated not being able to work alone. He has to work with the Ministry, especially on money delays. As soon as there was a new government and on re-arrangement of budget, Kshs5 billion was removed from this project, which was internationally funded. By the time we got that money back to Thwake Dam Project, another Kshs1 billion was again removed by National Assembly Budgeting Committee. This keeps creating confusion. First of all, when there is change of administration ministers, the Government enjoys perpetual continuity. There is no way such a serious project would by a new government. This goes into many other things that have happened with the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, hence the regulations, which should have come to this House, but never did. They only went to National Assembly purported to have been implemented. Seconders went to court for lack of proper public participation. The court is seized of the matter. There has been a proposal that so that the sector stops suffering, Parties come together and register a consent, so that there may be continuity in the country. This is because this House has also been sued. That is avoided when you make proper law to begin with. Just as Sen. Oketch Gicheru has said, there are so many introductions into this law, which reverse the gains of devolution to the national Government."
}