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{
    "id": 1462383,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1462383/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "We look forward to sending Director Ruge here to train them. This man is a repository of legislative procedures here in the Senate. The same knowledge needs to be passed to our county assemblies. How do you transfer and pass that knowledge? It is not with the visits that we get here every other afternoon. For example, the Speaker reads that today we have visitors from Tana River County who have come to learn about the operations of the Senate. Surely, we are taking that joke too far. You need a proper institution established by law, that Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) can learn from. They can also send their lead clerks, lead legal counsels or fiscal analysts to interact with those at the Senate and copy the best practices. That is why it is important to anchor County Assemblies Forum (CAF) in law and ensure that the same way Council of Governors (CoGs) gets funding from the national Government and the various counties, the same is done with the CAF, so that our county assemblies can rise to the level that was envisioned when we set up devolution. Madam Temporary Speaker, everything is about perception. People have learned how to tell their stories. We in the devolution family, must also learn how to do this. I speak about this so openly because this is something I appreciate. Allow me to digress a bit but this is in relation to the point that I am trying to canvass on the Floor. People tell their stories in a different way. I do not know what it will take for Kenyans to know, learn and appreciate that how you portray your country to other people reflects on you. Madam Temporary Speaker, there are riots, in the United Kingdom (UK) that are going on right now. I have been keenly watching and following how the BritishBroadcasting Corporation (BBC) is covering those riots. Compare that to what our local media does here when there are challenges in our country, and you can understand what people know about their country. I was checking to see whether the Cable News Network (CNN) will look for a British journalist and send them to show a burning motor vehicle, the same way it does with Larry Madowo every time there are problems in the Republic of Kenya. I have not seen it because people know that it matters how you tell the story of your country. I hope our journalists can take time to follow and see how the BBC or SkyNews are taking time to analyze the contentious issues or condemning those that are using extra-legal means to pass their point. These are things that you will never hear in the riots or challenges that we have been facing as a country. It is all about perception and appreciating that nobody will ever do your job of ensuring that even as you pass your point, you do not need to beat yourself too hard or try to paint how things are bad in order to appear intelligent or assume that you can do better. This is our country. The good that exists in Kenya is for all of us and vice versa . We are duty-bound to make it better. I hope we could learn about that. That is why I felt it was important to mention that in relation to what CAF needs to do for our county assemblies. I appreciate that county assemblies have come of age. Previously, all we used to hear about, especially in the 2013 to 2017 cycle of devolution, was that there was a fight in this county assembly, or they were impeaching this one or the other. In fact, there was a bold headline one afternoon, and I remember us discussing here, where citizens were saying, we should disband this thing called county assemblies."
}