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{
    "id": 1445835,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1445835/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 229,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "Senator for two terms and the people of Tana River County, where Sen. Mungatana, MGH comes from, want him to take the experience he has gained as a legislator to the governorship, why not? Why should we stop Sen. Mungatana, MGH, from transitioning to be the Governor of Tana River County? The same applies to me. If the time comes and the people of Nyamira County tell me they want me to transition from Senator to Governor, we should not stop anybody. Let the people decide. Madam Temporary Speaker, let me come back to the Report. It is unfortunate that implementation of projects spearheaded by a government can stall. That is a big indictment on us as a country. If you travel to many jurisdictions, projects initiated and implemented by governments never stall. If a government lacks money, then it means the country is bankrupt. In many civilized jurisdictions, if a government begins the construction of a road or a bridge, the presumption is that the government has money to complete the project. It is a real shame, when I look at this Report, some of these projects were launched way back in 2015. Imagine, next year will mark 10 years. The sad part is that we have sunk money into a project and we have a report that says some of them have been abandoned. It is a big indictment on our country. This money comes from taxpayers. Some of them are struggling. They get taxed knowing that the Government will put into good use the money that has gone into Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). It is not a very good statement of our performance. I hope the recommendations that have been put forth by the Committee will make us realize that. Our joy, as Senators, is to see this process that was mid-wifed by the Senate because those Motions came here, they were passed by the House and money was sent to counties. Our joy should be that as we go to those counites such as Isiolo or Tharaka-Nithi, we see the projects being launched. We feel proud as Senators. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is a shame if you look at the reasons for the stalled projects. If you read Page 19, the Cabinet Secretary said that some of the challenges that were faced included issues dealing with supervision, lack of good management of the projects and bureaucracies arising from the project implementation model. This should never happen because when you are designing a project, you must input how to supervise it, so that you can complete it within the projected contract period. How can our counties be telling us that 12 years into devolution, they have inadequate capacity at counties to supervise projects? Those are not excuses that we can take as a Senate. Even the excuse of lack of funds from the national Government should not be convincing. Madam Temporary Speaker, I can give you an example. Our county headquarters in Nyamira are still being housed by the County Commissioner. The county headquarters that was launched by our late Governor, Mzee John Nyagarama, has not been completed to date. This idea of a governor who takes over from an outgoing governor, not wanting to complete projects that were commenced or initiated by his predecessor, is something that should not happen in government. We have something we used to call perpetual succession in government. There is perpetual succession in government. When you come on board and find a project that was initiated by your predecessor, you continue with it. Even this Financial Year, in my County of Nyamira, the allocation is a paltry Kshs30 million to complete the 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."
}