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{
    "id": 1545739,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545739/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 44,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I will suffer the same incapacity as the Leader of Majority. We have not had the benefit of the Report of the Committee, but Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale has attempted to shed some light on what the Committee has done. First of all, allow me to comment on the question of the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF). Mr. Speaker, Sir, our Constitution has set out everybody's job. Everybody's job is clear in the Constitution that certain classifications of road are going to be done by the county government, certain classifications are going to be done by national Government. I am very proud as the Secretary General (SG) of ODM that my party leader and my party has taken a position on this question of RMLF. We are solid believers and defenders of the Constitution and we believe in devolution. My party leader's position, which is my position, is that Members of the National Assembly have no business constructing roads. If they have a problem, the problem is not with Sifuna. I take my instructions from my boss, my party leader. As a Senator of Nairobi, I have been charged to ensure that we defend devolution at every turn. Even in that matter that is before the courts, I remember the Chair of the Council of Governors, who also happens to be from my party appeared before the Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing and gave us a chronology of this fight. He indicated that they had tried to have conversations with the National Assembly, but those conversations never work. I remember when we were doing mediation on the Division of Revenue Bill, the Members of the National Assembly, in very condescending tones, were telling us that we, as the Senators, should go and tell the governors to withdraw the case in court on the RMLF. We, as the Senators, agreed with the Chair of the Council of Governors, that we want that matter to be resolved by the courts once and for all because the law is there, the Constitution is there. There is absolutely no reason we should be fighting about this. The most callous thing, Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have never been a Member of the National Assembly and maybe one day, if I will be, maybe this, I do not want to use the word disease, but this attitude, may come over me. Somehow, they have dissected the populations, they know the people who belong to the national Government and the people who belong to the county governments. It does not matter what prejudice the people suffer, for as long as the National Assembly gets what it wants, then we can hold the 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."
}