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{
    "id": 1491389,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1491389/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 160,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank you for this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. From the onset, I must thank the promoter of the Bill for the good job and thought that he has brought this Bill before us for debate. Most importantly, I thank him for the consultations that he has had with the different stakeholders, especially in the county assemblies across the country. Devolution is perhaps one of the best things that has happened in our country within the context of the 2010 Constitution. The most unfortunate thing is that devolution seems to have somehow gotten stuck at county headquarters, especially in the executive arms of the county governments. I would like to remind my colleagues that Article 176 of the Constitution creates county governments with two arms; the executive and the assembly. None of these arms is superior to the other. They should work interdependently to deliver services to the residents of the counties in which they are established. The financial autonomy of county assemblies and the benefits thereof, cannot be gainsaid. If we achieve the financial autonomy of county assemblies, then as a Senate, we will be beginning to scratch the surface to ensure devolution moves beyond the county headquarters towards the wards as centres of development. It is not good that, as things obtain today, the county assemblies will have to approach the County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) for finance in the executive arm of government for them to access finances to do anything and everything. It is a good thing, that we have this County Public Finance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which seeks the speaker to amend the County Assembly Services Act and the Public Finance Management Act to ensure the autonomy of county assemblies. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to mention just two or three things in the Bill. One is the establishment of the County Assembly Fund, as captured in Clause 109(a). The establishment of this fund is critical to ensure that, as county executives are accountable to the national Exchequer, especially for the releases and the control of the Budget, then the assemblies will also equally be accountable through the clerks of the assemblies for the expenditure and the utilisation of their budgets. It should be remembered that when the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) was being rolled out immediately after devolution, there was a conversation that had started, and that conversation seems to have stalled. There was a conversation around the establishment of an integrated Financial Management System. Now, we have a parallel, almost independent system of accountability for county assemblies, fully cognizant of our government's structure as a system of devolution. 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."
}