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{
"id": 1476832,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1476832/?format=api",
"text_counter": 154,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "the people of Kenya want are services that range from health, provision of water, access roads and all other services. As we debate this, we must take into consideration that over 80 per cent of the monies we have in this country remain at the hands of the national Government. The little that is taken to the counties; for this matter, the Kshs400 billion that was discussed, should never, ever be touched. Madam Temporary Speaker, from the word go, at the onset of devolution, the services that were devolved to the counties under the Fourth Schedule were not costed, but they remain to be very heavy services. For example, health and the investment that should be made given to it, is so much. Provision of water to our people is at a cost. We are not looking at small investments of water that even counties do at the level of Kshs2 million or Kshs1 million. The water investment that the national Government does leaves out the idea of distributing this water once an investment has been done. Therefore, the only infrastructure of distributing this water to our people is left to the counties. When no monies have been taken to the counties, our people get stranded at the health centres, dispensaries and at the hospitals for lack of medicine. That is the why I rise here to support the fact that the Kshs400 billion that we debated and approved here should not be touched. If there is a shortfall as there is, the national Government must meet it. Recently, we have had disasters. Just a few months ago, we were confronted with massive floods in this country. Attending to the issue of this disaster was not only limited to the national Government. Where there were flood challenges, we saw the contribution and our people expected the counties to reach them faster because the counties are closer to our people. The Kshs400 billion we are talking about is not enough for the counties. Therefore, if the counties are not given adequate money, how will our people be attended to when there are such disasters as floods? Besides, in this country, we know that as soon as we deal with floods, then in the next few months, we will deal with drought. A number of challenges come with drought because there will be no water for domestic use or livestock keepers and that calls for the counties to have money to attend to these disasters. These disasters are not only limited to floods or drought. The other day, we saw the matter of fire outbreaks. With the upcoming urban centres and fire outbreaks, it is within the mandate of counties to deal with fire outbreaks. Madam Temporary Speaker, some of the services that the counties have to perform, for example, is to open and maintain county roads. Historically, we know these are the roads that have been undeveloped for a number of years since Independence. These are the key roads that our people use in the wards and villages. If they are not opened, then our counties cannot grow. As a people and leaders, we need these counties to, not only open these roads, but also maintain them. When you come to education, we all come from some village and we have a picture of the state of our ECDEs. As a country, we should be proud of how our ECDEs centres look. All these require some investment and development that can only be done by the county governments. 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."
}