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{
"id": 1494970,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494970/?format=api",
"text_counter": 96,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "through procurement, through what they call a specially permitted procurement procedure. The specially permitted procurement procedure that is being used to initiate a lot of procurements that are not proper was insured through a Finance Act of 2017, which never came to this House and is wreaking havoc. A lot of things like the Adanis and all these things have come around, if you look at it, as a result of the mischief that was done by the National Assembly alone after 2013 to the Public Finance Management Act. They introduced a lot of changes. So, this particular intervention that we are looking at, the Public Finance Management Act, to try and ferry out the issues that keep counties dysfunctional is important. I congratulate the Deputy Speaker for having the presence of mind to come up with this Bill so that we can begin the journey to ensure that we have got counties that, from design, are meant to work. When you look at this particular section of the Act, it is like, I come to your home, I am from a village, right deep in the village somewhere, I want to answer the call of nature, it is raining, and I ask you: How I can get an umbrella? You tell me that I do not have to go out and could answer the call of nature within the house. You have got a self-contained house. Then I utilise it. When I finish, I say that when I go to my village, I will set up a similar house and put a toilet in that house. However, to ensure that all the villagers know that I have a toilet in my house, I will put the toilet in the living room, which messes up the design. That toilet cannot be used and becomes dysfunctional. This is what we have here. We have a design problem in the counties. The design is faulty, and then you end up with things that cannot work. To me, this is an opening shot. We need to visit all the legislation that governs counties and ensure that we get the design right so that we can properly set up something that can function before we test it. What we have in the counties right now, in many cases, cannot function because the design is wrong. The design of having money leave Nairobi into the kitty of the governor, then from there the county is served, is not acceptable. We must get the design right. I really congratulate you on this because you fixed a problem here. You got the design right, and once the design is right, things will flow. When the design is wrong, however hard you try, you will never succeed. That is why we say the egg, the way it is designed, can lift a chicken with a curve, but the other side cannot lift the weight of a chicken. Let us get the design right and work on this Bill. I pray that the National Assembly will see the value we have seen in this Bill and make sure that we create two autonomous institutions at the county level, whereby the assembly is independent. If the executive branch is independent, then the question of oversight can become possible. Otherwise, it is like asking your children to oversight their father in his compound. They cannot. The governor remains the big man, the governor remains the boss, and he cannot be oversighted by these people. I really pray that we will find a way of getting it through the National Assembly. I want to support what Sen. Kisang said that we may need to identify a partner in the Assembly who can help us see this Bill come through. 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."
}