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"id": 1399215,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Lomenen",
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"legal_name": "James Lomenen Ekomwa",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. First and foremost, I had asked the sponsor of the Bill to consult the leadership, key elders, professionals and all the people working with the public administration. If you are very keen, you will find that some problems were caused by the public administration. For example, an area such as Kapedo, which is just a sub-location, has 10 chiefs. You will find chiefs who are employed by the public administration in Baringo area and another five chiefs employed by the same administration in Turkana County. So, how will we solve this overlapping? The Government is using money to pay all these people, and in the process, they create more harm in these communities. The other thing that the sponsor should realise is that during colonialism every county was given a size of land. For example, Turkana County is 77,000 square kilometres. These 77,000-kilometres keep reducing. The question is; who has taken part of the land? We realised that there are some people in counties who have the tendency of expanding their territories claiming that soon, when the Commission will be established, they will have a county. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Government is in a position to solve this problem between West Pokot and Turkana. If the Government can demarcate all the boundaries, I am very sure there will be no problem. This is because these boundaries are there; they were demarcated by the colonialists. It is not possible to form other boundaries at this time. This is an emotive issue. It is not possible to select or nominate people to come and talk about boundaries between Pokot and Turkana. If the public administration has created a problem, let them be honest to the citizens of the affected counties and admit that there is a problem. For example, I hope that if a person is appointed a county commissioner, they are given a map of the area they will supervise. However, you will find that some people do not even know where they are supposed to supervise. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the land between these counties has resources such as water and minerals. You will find that when a certain community realises that there are many resources where they live, they start to fight the other community saying that the land belongs to them. Therefore, the sponsor of this Bill has to provide the timeline, where each county will organise itself by bringing all their maps, acts and memorandum by their elders, leaders and professionals so that everybody is involved in public participation and when a decision is made, no one will complain that a certain committee was biased. The sub-committee that will be formed should take time. I support what Sen. Cherarkey said that it has to take even more than six months. This is because this is a very emotive and sensitive issue. Elders, former political leaders, church elders, Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and civil society groups have to be listened to. You will find that these NGOs and civil society groups have created some maps. That is not an easy thing to do. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I urge the sponsor of this Bill to let us replicate the best practice from the Kenya Forces. The Kenya Forces has been there and their maps are respected. They have demarcated these counties in a very respectable way. Therefore, in 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 and AudioServices, Senate."
}