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{
    "id": 1503131,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503131/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 371,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "is why I must laud the Leader of the Majority Party for bringing the Bill that structures the engagement between the county and the national Government in whichever direction we look at it. The drafters of the Constitution set out the mandate of each level of Government as clearly set out in Article 186 of the Constitution of Kenya, which is clearly stipulated in the Fourth Schedule. The running theme in the Constitution is that Kenya is one undivided nation, and the various levels of Government are purely for service delivery and administrative purposes. Consequently, none of the functions should ever be left unattended because there is a struggle or a tiff between the national Government and county government. The Bill has been presented pursuant to Article 187 of the Constitution, which contemplates that at one time or another, either of the levels of Government will be unable to undertake those functions or will find it more suitable and fit for either level to undertake them. The provisions provided for here provide adequate safeguards so that we do not have a situation that happened in Nairobi Metropolitan Services where there were no structures at all. There was no enabling legislation or law to support the transfer. I sit in the Public Accounts Committee, and one of the biggest pending bills on account of the State House and the Office of the President literally comes out of this kind of arrangement, where the county government transferred some services or functions to the national Government but without a legal framework on how to transfer the liabilities and assets. That is why it is refreshing that Clause 186E of the Bill provides a framework for recording assets and liabilities and transferring them to the end of the transfer arrangement. I know this contemplated the transfer agreement, but it would have been better if the period of the transfer was clearly stipulated in the law at any given time. If we have a strong presidency that can arm-twist, like what happened between the last regime and Nairobi City County, it means any transferred function will be done in perpetuity or for a more extended period than it is. Actually, it should be done so that there is capacity building during the transfer. I would request, if time allows, that any transfer agreement, especially from the county to the national Government, should be for the purposes of capacity building to ensure the county government has developed adequate capacity and infrastructure to run those services more so, where the service is a devolved function as contemplated in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. Essentially, we must let the counties perform regardless of their failings and shortcomings. We must put in place mechanisms to allow them to operate. We could have also provided for some element of public participation such that before a transfer of a function occurs, there must be some semblance of public participation. Residents of a particular county should be asked if they agree that a county has failed, is unable or is lacking adequate capacity so that the function can be transferred to the national Government. It must be a consultative process. As it is now, it is going to be a unilateral process whereby the county, the Governor and the president can simply sit down and transfer a function. In the same way, since the National Assembly represents the people of Kenya and their interests, there must be a mechanism in this Bill to allow some approval process at the national level by the National Assembly to permit the national Government to transfer a function that is exclusive of the national Government to the county government. At any given time, everybody must carry their responsibility. With the challenges the county governments are facing in the health sector and the education sector in Early Childhood Education (ECD), we can have a structured debate to find out what functions should be transferred. As the Leader of the Majority Party has indicated, we can, for instance, discuss if the Level 4 referral hospitals can be transferred to the national Government. There is a hospital in Kiambu County where an intern doctor committed suicide. In the same hospital, four months later, another intern nurse committed suicide. Does it mean professional standards are different? We do not hear of a medical doctor committing suicide in"
}