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{
"id": 1408736,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408736/?format=api",
"text_counter": 184,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
},
"content": "So, if you have an allocation of Kshs400 million in one financial year, you can do up to 10 kilometers and that can transform counties. If you take a county such Nyamira, which is not huge in terms of acreage, you can do a lot. So, our governors need to wake up so that they can join the efforts of the national Government to progressively transform our counties. I am one of those lucky Senators that fiscal capacity and efficiency are not one of the perimeters we use to share revenue. If we invoked that parameter, I would immediately lose money, because, in my County of Nyamira, our accounts have moved from being qualified to adverse. I can see there is a proposal that fiscal capacity and efficiency of government be introduced as one of the parameters. We want to advise our governors to spend our money more efficiently, have more accountability and reduce wastage in our counties. They should also know that money that is sent to counties is not meant to reward relatives or friends. Last week, His Excellency the President was hosting a conference on the ballooning Wage Bill, but at the same time, in the County of Nyamira, we were shooting up our Wage Bill to wallop 71 per cent of the allocation that is given to the County Government of Nyamira. In just one financial year, we started by employing 300 people and then we added another 200 people. That is 500 people, and we are not picking children of the needy. It is just packing the county with cronies and relatives, which is very unfortunate. So, I think that there is something that we need to do as Senators. Article 254(2) says that as a Senate, we have powers to summon an independent office holder or any commission to come and give us a report as a House. It is high time that we called the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the five commissioners, and the CEO, to come here and appear before the Committee of the Whole and tell us what they are doing to deal with the corruption in our counties. You and I cannot move to our respective counties and arrest our governors. The only people who have that power are EACC, DCI, and the DPP, you know. Every day, we are speaking on this Floor saying how corrupt governors are but see no action. I heard Sen. (Dr.) Oburu give an example of Nigeria, where there is also a devolved system of government though they have states. He says many governors were locked up because of stealing public resources. However, 12 years into devolution in this beautiful country called Kenya, not even one person has gone to jail. Whereas the national Government is calling for reduction of the Wage Bill, in some counties such as Nyamira, we have ballooned our Wage Bill to take 71 per cent of the resources that we send to our counties. That is not the way to transform our country. Such a governor wants us to remain the way we are, the way the late President Moi used to say, “Mkae vivyo hivyo.” We do not want kukaa vivyo hivyo; we want our country to be transformed. We want our country to change. We want to drive to our homes through tarmac roads, not marram roads. Sixty years after independence, we need a better quality of life for our people. 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."
}