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"id": 262198,
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to start my contribution by thanking the task force that was led by advocate Mutakha Kangu. I want to remember that this gentleman, who comes from my county, has made a great contribution to the new Kenya that we are talking about today, right from the days of the Bomas of Kenya processes. It is just about time that he was given – I do not want to call it a reward but allow me to use that word – an opportunity to continue using his experience that he has acquired over the years. I want to note that this Bill is, indeed, the backbone of the new Constitution to the extent that we want to finally see the issue of development following the Executive; it is a matter that will be left in the dustbin. As we do this, we want to warn the incoming governors that if it was bad for development to follow the Executive to where his village was, it will be equally bad for people to want to become governors, so that they can take goodies to their villages or run our counties according to their whims. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is for this reason that I want to support this Bill, and note where it provides that the governor must be removed whenever necessary. I want to disagree with hon. Mungatana that we should make the process of removing the governor from office difficult. To the contrary, the process should be made easy. If the County Assembly establishes that people have elected a corrupt governor, they must have an opportunity of quickly initiating the process of that governor’s removal, so that the matter eventually ends up with the Senate with a view to him being replaced, so that we can have a man who is corrupt-free being in charge of a county government. I want to appeal to the Minister, on the issue of preparedness for the County Governments. It worries me that somebody might be thinking, especially in the Treasury, that the issue of the county government is a small matter. If you move around the world and go to the Republic of South Africa, you will appreciate that the provincial assemblies of Gauteng and Kwa Zulu Natal are actually bigger than the National Assembly of Kenya. This thing is not a joke. If you go to the provincial government of Toronto in Canada you will appreciate that it is almost five times the size of the National Assembly of Kenya. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is, therefore, important that hon. Mudavadi works with the Treasury with speed, so that the process of establishment of the infrastructure that is required for County Governments is immediately put in place. In order for us to do this, it might require us to do a bit of smart thinking. We have, for example, counties that are privileged to have the provincial headquarters. It is possible, since we are phasing out the Provincial Commissioners (PCs), that we can use those provincial headquarters as the seat of the County Governments in those particular counties, so that we can free money that would have been used to do construction going to other counties that do not have such facilities. At this time, the Minister should be telling us whether the Ministry of Public Works has by now created a model County Assembly building and a model governor’s residence. These are things that are going to be very important. By the way, it is just around the corner. Therefore, I want to urge hon. Mudavadi that he must rush to the Treasury and get the funds now, so that construction work can start taking place. Otherwise, there are counties which will be unable to conduct debate at all. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to comment on Clause 4 of the Bill. Clause 4 refers to the issue of symbols. It is important that it be clear that whereas county assemblies should be free to choose their own symbols, they should not attempt to do so by creating a replica of the national symbols. May I mention that this is a serious matter? Just a few days ago, I saw a presidential aspirant launching his presidential bid and his portraits were in the national colours, yet we know that the national colours on the flag are actually protected. I want to comment on the issue of qualifications of County Assembly members. It has not been made clear in this particular Bill, but I remember that in the Elections Act, we have referred to the issue of qualifications of County Assembly members. We have to think this thing through. Clause 9 provides for the roles of the members of the county assemblies. Allow me to comment on it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the first role of a member of the County Assembly is to maintain contact with the electorate. How much education does a County Assembly member require to make that contact? Members of county assemblies will be supposed to present views, opinions and proposals of the electorate to the county assemblies. How much education will such a member require to have to do this? Members of the county assemblies will be required to attend sessions of their respective county assemblies. How much education will one need to do so? Finally, County Assembly members will be supposed to provide a link between the county assemblies and the electorate and facilitate service delivery. There are some areas in this country where the level of education is not very high. If we push too hard on academic qualifications, we will end up locking out able men and women who will have represented their areas; we will have residents of Nairobi who were born in those villages going back to their respective counties and pretending that they represent those people when they actually come from Nairobi. I want us to think through this matter. I believe that we should leave it open. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should not insist on Form Four and above qualifications for County Assembly members. The process of natural justice will eventually bring out the kind of leaders that the people will need. After all, somebody said that the people get the leaders they deserve. If you think you want to be led by somebody who does not have Form Four education and above, it is up to you. It is not up to the statutes to dictate to people. I am saying this because we are the ones who have decided this. We did not ask the current councillors. I remember that when it came to senators and Members of Parliament qualifications, we said that one should have education level of Form Four and above. Surely, how can we expect the same level of education for senators and Members of Parliament to apply to councillors? We must be fair to these people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to comment on the qualifications of the Speaker of the County Assembly. Hon. Mudavadi, you have not indicated in this Bill what the qualifications of the Speaker of the County Assembly should be. It is important that we indicate here that the Speaker of a County Assembly must actually be somebody with very good education in order for him to be able to guide debate. Therefore, if you provide that he should have a minimum qualification of a university degree it will be acceptable, for purposes of functionality. On the issue of the Speaker and his removal, I want to insist that we must maintain a very high threshold for removal of the Speaker. I am not saying the County Assembly representatives will behave like some of the councilors. However, you have seen councilors behave sometimes in very unacceptable ways. They can make debate so impossible that every time the Speaker wants to guide debate he is threatened with removal. We should make the threshold higher, so that the Speaker can firmly be able to dictate and guide debate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to comment on Clause 12. It refers to the issue of the Clerk. I want to agree with what has been provided and I support it. However, I want to request that urgently the process of training of would-be clerks in all the provincial assemblies should immediately go underway. This is because if we do not do it now, we will have these county assemblies without clerks. I want to propose that preference be given to Principal Clerks who are currently serving in this National Assembly; affirmative action be given to Deputy Clerks and Clerk Assistants because they are the ones who already have some knowledge. I would be happy to see my good neighbour and friend Mr. Mwangi becoming the Clerk, for example, of the Kiambu County Assembly, or if not better, he should become the Clerk of the Senate. We do not want to allow people coming from outside and then taking the jobs of these very-well educated young people that we have in this Parliament. I want to comment on electoral wards. The taskforce has suggested that there should be 1,450 wards. We have no problem with this. However, when I attended the IEBC meetings in Kakamega, I found that they were taking lightly the views of hon. Members. The views of wananchi in certain places were simply an outcry that a particular ward should not vote in a particular area because of community interest. I want to thank Mr. Mudavadi because his taskforce has clearly indicated here in Clause 27(6)(b) that community interest must be considered. It says:- “Community interest, historical, economic and cultural ties will be put into consideration when you are deciding on electoral wards.” This is the time for the departmental committee to hear and remember what the people presented to IEBC when they were in various counties. I remember the people from Mumias West in Kakamega talked passionately about two sub-locations; a sub-location called Bukhuyi and another called Ruwe. All what these people were asking was that the commission exercises this proviso of community interest, so that the people of Bukhuyi and Ruwe sub-locations in Mumias East can vote in Mumias where the rest of the community is. I hope the relevant departmental Committee will put this into force. Similarly, we have in Lurambi in Kakamega County, the people of Butsotso North. They are saying they do not want to go and vote in Nabakholo. They want to vote in Lurambi Constituency. Surely, these people are not asking for much. Already given in this particular Bill the Minister is recognizing that if communities want to remain together they should be allowed to do so. So, allow the people of Butsotso to vote in Lurambi instead of forcing some of them to vote in Lurambi and others in Nabakholo. For the benefit of this House, even the people of Nabakholo, do not want the people of Butsotso to vote in Nabakholo. Why are we forcing these people to vote together when they have where to go? Finally, so that I do not forget my own constituency, the people of Shitoli Sub- Location said that they want to vote with the rest of the people in Central Idaho Ward. Therefore, I hope that that the Committee will put this into consideration since we have already put the petition. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my mind when I read this Bill there is a formation of a structure of administration. I see clearly at the top you have the governor, then you have the sub-county administrator and then you have the ward administrator. It is true that the Minister has left it open that thereafter the other levels below should be left to counties to decide. Maybe there is need for us to guide them. This is because at the ward level you have left it hanging at the location. Most of the wards are pegged on locations. So, this means that the sub-locations and some of the locations have got three, four, five, six sub- locations. It means that there will be something hanging on what happened to the sub- location before you go to the village. On this structure, all of them are appointed by the governor. It, therefore, means that, at the end of five years, the governor will go away with these people because he appointed them. If he has lost the new incoming governor will want to make his own appointees. The danger with this is that there will be no institutional memory. I want to propose in this Bill and I hope Mr. Washiali will allow the Minister to listen to this, that the sub-county and the ward administrators should not be appointees of the governor. This is because when he goes away and he has lost, he goes with them. The incoming will appoint his own people. They should be members of the County Public Service, so that they serve as institutional memory. The governor does not have a shortage of people to appoint. The governor will appoint chief officers and many other officers. If we do not do this, this is tantamount to asking the institutional memory to be lost with the administration of that governor. By time this governor goes away, the Government will have spent a lot of money training these administrators. So, all the money will go to waste. May I remind the Minister that he need to express in this Bill that the village elders who will be doing administrative work, be paid a salary. They should not be left to be walking around collecting people’s chickens, goats and stuff like that. This is for real. It happens in many parts of this country and not just in Luhyaland alone. I want to speak on the issue of representation. Article 96 of the Constitution of Kenya provides that the senator represents the County Governments. The same Constitution provides that the Member of Parliament represents the members of his constituency. So, in this Bill, when I see a situation whereby the senator who represents the county has not been captured, we are leaving a vacuum. I want to propose that since the senator represents the county, the senator should be given an opportunity to sit in the County Assembly during the Budget Speech, so that he can listen to the ideas of the County Assembly Members. Having listened to those ideas, he will then carry them to the senate and defend that budget. If you do not allow the senator to sit in the County Assembly optionally, especially during budget, it means he will be attempting to defend a budget for that county, a document that will be foreign to him. Finally, I want to urge the Minister to be brave. I know he is trying to be nice so that he does not lose his popularity on this presidential ambition. However, he has to be brave on this one. In this Bill, he must put it in black and white the role or fate of the provincial administration. Some people think with the County Governments, that the provincial administration will go away. You have to come out clearly, so that the governor knows if the DC, chief or sub-chief is not going away, how he will relate with them. My submission on this one would be as follows, because we have a sub-county and that sub- county has got a sub-county administrator we let that sub-county administrator to superintend the sub-county medical officer, the sub-county agricultural officer, the sub- county veterinary officer and so on. However, on matters of security, the sub-county administrator should superintend somebody and that person should be the current DC. So do not remove the DC. Retain the DC, you can give him a different name but he will be in charge of security and he will be superintendent by the sub-county administrators. Similarly, as you go down, you retain the chief, the sub-chief and the village elder only that you give them different names so that these people are specifically in charge of security. With those few remarks, I support."
}