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{
    "id": 262102,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/262102/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 491,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "context, I think the Minister has done a commendable job by first having a taskforce and secondly having a draft report and finally ending up with this Bill that we are discussing. I for one am very happy in the sense that if you look at the pillars of this Constitution other than the Bill of rights which I think is critical – more than anything else, the Bill of rights is the foundation of this Constitution. Without it, even if you were to practice democracy--- The Bill of rights is not based on any majoritarian concept. You are either wrong or right on issues to do with the Bill of rights. In my view, other than the provisions found in the Bill of rights and on the representation of the people, the provisions to deal with the legislature either at the national level or county level, the most important and innovative chapter in this new constitutional arrangement is the chapter dealing with devolution. If you look at the general design in the Constitution and the architecture of the entire constitutional framework and audit this Bill against it, I think the Minister has thought outside the box and has actually come up with a very innovative legislation. I think that many countries where the debate is going on about devolution and one which is not necessarily a federal system are grappling with how to create entities that are autonomous and yet interdependent vis-à-vis the national parliament. Often, you would find that debate not well articulated in many other Constitutions. Whereas we tend to quote the South African Constitution as being a good Constitution, but in terms of devolution and the arrangements found in this Constitution--- I think if you look at this Constitution and juxtapose it with the South African one, the Minister has done a very good job. The second reason I want to commend the Minister is that under the old constitutional arrangement, the Minister for Local Government was literally one of the most powerful Ministers. In fact, there was a Minister in this House who came from hon. ole Ntimama’s neighborhood who said that in this nation only two people were important, that is, President Moi because he ran the national Government and hon. ole Tiptip because he ran the local Government. The power above rested with the President and the power below was with hon. ole Tiptip. For that reason, the Local Government Bill was changed so many times. Where people had spoken and elected councilors to county councils you would find that through a process of nomination the voice of the people would be undermined. In the 1980s you would find that the nominated councilors in a county council were more than the elected councilors. If it dawned on the Minister that the person he wanted to be Chairman would not be elected, all that he simply did was to either over nominate or if he could not do that and he had nominated somebody who was going to vote the right way, just before you took your sit, the DC would serve you with a notice that from this minute you were no longer a councilor in the county council. I am reminded that DCs and DOs were councilors of some sort."
}