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{
    "id": 1477264,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1477264/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 334,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We need to be very careful not to be in breach of the provisions of the Statutory Instruments Act as well as the Constitution that clearly states that the law-making body is Parliament and nobody else. It is a typical Bill that has administrative structures. I take special objection to Clause 7(1)(e) which states that: “The membership of the Board of the Authority shall be five persons, not being public officers, appointed by the Cabinet Secretary.” I suppose that in the minds of the Committee members, there is an expectation that the appointment will be through a competitive process so that the Cabinet Secretary does not decide to appoint people who have no capacity or people close to them, therefore, compromising on the whole issue. Clause 17 confers upon the Authority an extremely wide mandate. I am not so sure whether this country has the resources to provide the funds required for the Authority, for example, to ensure that each technopolis is equipped with state-of-the-art integrated infrastructure and facilities even though one of the functions of the Authority is to raise funds to achieve their objectives. There are a number of progressive ideas that we will watch keenly. I want to bring to the attention of the House that the Authority will be the custodian or will keep records or backup for State, national and county data. We hope that it will have enough safeguards to ensure that there are no data breaches to the detriment of the country and individuals. On the issue of land use planning, we will need to interrogate the issue of the buffer zone and the functions of the county government as provided for in the Constitution. We must also look at the provisions of the Physical and Land Use Planning Act to ensure that there is no overreach given that the Authority is not a planning authority, unless it applies to be listed or licensed as such so as to prepare land use plans without the approval of the relevant county government. We hope that the Authority will decentralise this particular technopolis, if possible, to all strategic counties. Busia is one of the strategic counties and I hope you will not forget it. With those very many remarks, I support the Bill. Thank you."
}