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{
    "id": 1381771,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1381771/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "the voice of the people of Kisumu who feel like something is being taken away from them? I will be relying on my colleagues for advice on how some of these things can be done so that by altering a boundary, you do not kill one county just to strengthen another county. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, our greatest battle is to defend the territory of the Republic of Kenya; these county boundaries are superficial. I want to implore Kenyans that we do not need to be killing each other over issues of boundaries around counties. The boundaries are not natural; the boundaries are not entirely cultural; the boundaries are not entirely historical. They were constructs of a government that perhaps sought to gerrymander to ensure that it had more administrative units that it could control. Even though today we are talking about alteration of boundaries and mediation where there are boundary disputes, this House must take judicial notice. On this, the leader of Government business in this House must tell us the direction we are taking as a county vis-a-vis the structures of devolution. This is because just the other day, I had in my county the establishment of about six or seven sub-counties. The problem with these six or seven sub-counties is that they then operate in competition with the structures of devolved counties. You have people wearing colonial-era uniforms, walking around, trying to police and shepherd politicians who have been elected by the people. When people went to Naivasha, there was an agreement that the National Government Coordination Act would be aligned with the new Constitution. However, we are not seeing that happening. We are seeing the proliferation of sub-countries. We are seeing the proliferation of national Government administrative units at the expense of the structures of the old governments. We should be clear in our minds that we have two levels of government, the national Government and county governments. Whereas the national Government has a right to establish whatever units they deem appropriate along the principle of subsidiarity, but it should not compete with devolution, and should not be a replication of existing devolved structures. It should not be a waste of funds because money is being spent on all these people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have heard some of my colleagues argue that when you establish a sub-county, you will have a sub-county administration unit. If you establish a new location, you will have a chief, a sub-chief, and all those, and that is the attraction of all these things. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let us argue from the position of principle that we should have only two structures of government, the devolved governments and the national Government. I wish to conclude by thanking the Standing Committee on Devolution led by Sen. Abbas. We had agreed that Sen. Abbas was going to Second this Bill, but the Committee did an excellent job. They have reported back to the House; the House is seized of the report and will take the proposed amendments that came from public participation to ensure that we make this Bill better. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services, Senate."
}