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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. There is no doubt that local authorities in this country are playing a pivotal role in terms of developing this great country. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government has gone at length to give those key areas, on which he has put his focus, particularly in this financial year. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, one critical aspect we need to emphasise on is that of local government reforms. If you look at it critically, you will realise that those who are elected to run local authorities are more or less reduced into \"passengers\" in those local authorities, because the powers are vested, according to the Local Government Act, on the chief officers of the local authorities. So, the people who are directly answerable to the public - elected councillors - are more or less reduced to \"passengers\" and yet, the buck stops with them. This is one area I am urging the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government to come up with the necessary legislation, so that Parliament can deliberate on it, so that at the end of the day, we can have real power in local authorities being vested in the hands of councillors. Councillors are people who more or less have a contract with the public. At the end of their five- year term, they must be accountable to the people. October 14, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2683 Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, secondly, if you look at the Budget allocation, particularly for the development aspects, you will see that the Nairobi City Council (NCC) has been allocated a lot of resources. So much allocation has been made to the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. So, most of the money that is meant for the development of the NCC should be freed, so that it can be used for development of the areas enumerated by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government, in local authorities outside Nairobi. Out of the 175 local authorities in the country, hardly about 70 meet their financial obligations. This means that the rest live below their budgetary needs and more or less depend a lot on allocations from the Government of Kenya. If the money meant for each local authority is raised, I believe the situation would be helpful to all local authorities in this country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the development of retail markets by local authorities is a very noble idea. For one, it assists many local authorities generate more income which is needed for their recurrent and development expenditure. Designating 18 markets this financial year, I believe, is quite a low figure. What should have been considered is, in all the 175 local authorities, we should have had 175 new retail markets being put up by the Ministry of Local Government. If you look at the issue of urban planning, the Minister has clearly indicated that quite a substantial amount of money would be going to that area. It should, however, be emphasized that a lot of supervision is required because there happens to be no respect to urban planning in this country. This is the more reason in quite a number of cases, you will see buildings falling. This is because they do not adhere to the plans that were made. The issue of the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) is a very noble idea. This is because it gives budgetary support to weak councils. I respect the criteria that the Ministry has adopted in the disbursement of the money. However, serious loop-holes are there. If you look at many councils, the councillors get their allowances from the LATF. It is kind of support because we have reduced our councillors to beggars in the hands of chief officers. This is the more reason a lot of serious work is not done by our respective local authorities upcountry. I would request the Minister to come up legislation. We need to empower councillors so that the money meant for LATF goes to the programmes they are tailored for. We should not have most of it going to pay for councillor's allowances. It is clear that we are reducing councillors into limping sheep. This is in the sense that they cannot offer their services as required. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, sewerage systems in most of our local authorities are wanting. Once in a while, particularly during the rainy seasons, most sewerage systems in urban areas burst. In my opinion, the money allocated for that may not be sufficient to effectively offer this service. It is a very critical component because it is the image we give to tourists who visit us. We need to look into the issue of sewerage systems. We need to pump a lot of money into it so that we have an efficient system that is running and which does not force us to react, particulary during rains. I applaud the idea of mapping local authorities. A lot of emphasis should be put into this because when you look at local authorities across the country, mapping has not been done effectively. There is haphazard construction of buildings. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is also the need to strengthen the supervisory arm of the local authorities. This would ensure that what is mapped is undertaken as required by law. Finally, fire disasters have always been a problem in most local authorities. It is unfortunate that apart from local authorities that have existed over time, maybe from Independence, many of the 175 local authorities do not have fire fighting equipment in place yet they are supposed to react to emergencies. 2684 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 14, 2008 Wherever there are fire outbreaks, they are supposed to respond. However, they do not have fire engines and the necessary support. I think the allocation given to that area is insufficient because the public demands a lot from our local authorities. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I do not need to belabour so much about the good work that local authorities do. However, we must admit the fact that we need a lot of serious reforms for efficiency in our local authorities. Our local authorities play a very pivotal role in terms of the development of this country. We need to give them all the necessary support and budgetary allocation. This should be done in order for them to meet their requirements and ensure the necessary services are rendered to the many hungry Kenyans. If you look at the council budgetary allocations per province, I think there are some serious anomalies. Quite a number of councils have been left out. This calls for more serious attention by the planners. We need to treat local authorities equally because they serve Kenyans. We do not need to discriminate others. If you look at the allocations, more established local authorities are given a lot of allocations and funding. Those that are coming up are either ignored or are given very meagre allocations. What I would suggest, considering the critical role performed by the local authorities, is that they should be given a bigger allocation, because they have a lot of work to do for Kenyans and Kenyans are waiting with abated breath for those services. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}