Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1445783,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1445783/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "remember very well I was seated there. This was a matter that we debated in this House in 2015. We succeeded and the national Government agreed that this process takes place. I appeal to this House to support this, so that the discrimination and marginalisation vested on the counties of Lamu, Isiolo, Tana River, and Tharaka-Nithi and Nyandarua Counties be something of the past. The case of Tharaka-Nithi County is a sorry state. These were people who were living very well under the defunct local authority of Meru. When they saw the new Constitution, they thought they had been living under John the Baptist, and now the Holy Spirit had arrived. The Holy Spirit has now arrived in the rest of the country, but in Tharaka-Nithi, they would not be blamed if they have changed course from Christianity to something else. It is a pity that if you go to a place like Tana River County, the Governor operates from some house. I do not know whether it is Sen. Mungatana's house or someone else. It cannot be right. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my third contribution to this is what the vision was. The vision is not what is going on now. If you go to a place like Mandera County, where the Chairman of this Committee was governor for 10 years, because he was proactive and visionary, he has built a very good county headquarters. If you go to other counties like Kakamega, they have built something that looks like a county headquarters, but not a county headquarters. The original spirit was that we standardise what a model county headquarters, county assembly and governor's residence would be. However, because we did not do that, we have opened the floodgates for some unscrupulous governors to sink hundreds of millions of shillings into structures that we are not too clear whether they would have met the original specification of what we wanted for county headquarters. I remember, at the time we were in this House after we promulgated the new Constitution, architectural designs of the county headquarters for the executive and speakers of county assemblies were tabled on this Floor. We have lost it there, and because we cannot keep on bemoaning, let us go ahead and allow these counties to conclude their projects. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we have failed on this intergovernmental initiative, then I am very worried about the Kshs500 million that we have committed for the County Aggregation Industrial Parks (CAIP). The first big one was this one that has taken a whopping eight to nine years. If we are not too careful, again 10 years from now, we will be bemoaning in this House that we started a project, which has become a white elephant. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I conclude by speaking to the case of Kakamega County. It is not only the third most populous county in Kenya, but also the second largest county in Kenya. It is a pity that 12 years after the devolution, there is no county assembly in Kakamega. I had an opportunity of taking my colleagues to Kakamega, led by the Chairman, Sen. Ali Roba. Sen. Ali Roba, knowing the good work he did in Mandera County, was ashamed to walk in the county headquarters of Kakamega. I call upon the current Governor and Speaker to pull up their socks, so that a new modern county assembly is constructed in Kakamega. What is more, I urge the Governor of Kakamega County to desist from the temptation of the corruption that goes around renting county offices. The County Government of Kakamega pays rent in excess of Kshs71 million, and yet, already at the former Mudiri Estate in Kakamega, people have been evacuated. The Governor said that his first project would be construction of the 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 and Audio Services,Senate."
}