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{
"id": 1381803,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1381803/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "point them out because I can come under attack. We remove Nairobi out of our list of counties. Secondly, we amalgamate the regional counties that I have been speaking to it. The endeavour by governors to go into regional blocs was not kneejerk. They had reflected that if they became regional blocs, they would unlock regional economic potential. I am appealing to the people of the counties of the former Western Province to accept that we have county one – Western County. County Two – Nyanza County, County three – North Rift County, County Four - South Rift County, County Five – Central County, County Six – North Eastern County, County Seven – Upper Eastern County and County Eight – Lower Eastern County and the last one; County Nine- Coast County. Madam Temporary Speaker, what is the benefit behind this thinking? I said that this is a thought-provoking discussion this afternoon. I just want to flow. I do not have to be right, but I would like to be heard by this House. I believe we would be moving on the trajectory of looking for the ideal county. What is this ideal county? We want a county that is economically viable. As the father of this Bill, Sen. M. Kajwang’, you can imagine the viability of Nyanza Province with its counties touching Lake Victoria, the tourism, the blue economy, the water sports and the ships that can move, not only from county to county, but from the Port in Kisumu to Entebbe or Mwanza. That will unlock that potential, instead of looking at the smaller picture. Secondly, this economically-viable counties will generate own-source revenue. I know of a county, but I will not mention its name because the Senator will be offended – thank God he is not in the House. They raise about Kshs200 million in own-source revenue and - Sen. M. Kajwang’, father of this Bill - they receive over Kshs12 billion in shareable revenue. Even if you give this county 10 years, their focus is on shareable revenue without caring where that commonwealth is coming from. They will not be bothered to try and grow their own-source revenue because they have an easy source of Kshs12 billion. Why struggle to raise the Kshs200 million? Madam Temporary Speaker, we learn from own-source revenue the successes of the bigger counties. Senators can look at the statistics because they are now there. We are in the 11th year of devolution. Nairobi has contributed to own-source revenue in billions, Machakos, Kakamega, Kiambu and Nakuru in billions. This is because they are big counties. There is wisdom in us amalgamating our counties. Thirdly, when you unlock the economic potential in regions, you fix the problems in Maseno and Mtito Andei. You also fix the problems between the Pokomos and the Kambas who keep on moving their boundary as well as the people in Kilifi doing the same to the Pokomos. How do you fix it? You fix it because they are naturally in one huge county and, therefore, the ethnic friction will go down. Additionally, ethnic chauvinism will not be there because the people in that huge county are most likely to be mono-ethnic. They will, therefore, learn to live with each other and use the human resource from the various mosaics of their tribes to grow their county. 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."
}