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{
    "id": 1395444,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395444/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 300,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "child born in 1992 is probably 31 years old. Within 32 years, many things have happened in terms of delineation of a physical feature that defined boundaries at that time. If for instance, a river that used to be seasonal, was used as a feature at that time in the district boundaries marking and even in redistricting, by now the river no longer exists. If you used that river to say district X which then became boundary Y in the current arrangement used that river, you cannot even imagine where that river existed. This would lead to serious perpetual conflict after conflict. Therefore, having such a legal mechanism as what is proposed in this Bill is the right and best way to go to make sure that the dispute we are seeing in county boundaries is solved. Part 4 and 5 of this Bill is very explicit on the process and persona of the people who can propose the review of boundaries and even alteration. The Bill has attempted to define very well the people who can propose those alterations. It gives the power to the individuals in terms of any person within a county but more specifically, it gives people like Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) who live in our grassroots communities the power to review boundaries by being able to propose and petition Parliament, especially, the Senate. This is because most of these boundaries’ issues are going to affect counties. Therefore, this is the House where they can to highlight such things. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it gives even the Senators the power to Petition for a review of a boundary in the context of its alteration. I find that to be ingenious because other than that, the issue of alteration of boundaries has been a political issue. If you think about it, it is where, for instance, governors who sometimes have the interest of collecting small revenue in the small markets within our boundaries, tend to charge people in emotive political narratives on what constitutes their boundaries or not. This Bill addresses this very well by making sure there is a proper process and definition of individuals who can propose for boundary review. More importantly, there is a proper channel within which the commissions, under Part 5, the Independent County Boundaries Commission can be able to solidly deliberate on that particular process. The spirit of this Bill should also help us question such things as whether the counties we have right now are enough. I have held the view that the more devolved units we have in this country, the better off we are. I hold the view that places such as Kuria, where I come from, the Kuria District of that time and the Kuria sub-county that we have right now, given their functions at the border of the country and to our community and the population they have right now should be given a county. That does not take away from Migori County but adds to it because when Migori gets, say, Kshs12 billion and Kuria also gets Kshs12 billion, it means more resources are devolved to go to the counties."
}