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{
    "id": 262599,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/262599/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 345,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Shakeel",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 140,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
        "slug": "shakeel-shabbir"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to contribute to the County Governments Bill. The Bill is seeking to implement Chapter 11 on devolved governments. It also seeks to replicate national governments at the grassroots level as proposed and the establishment of county executive committees and the county assembly which is equivalent to the Cabinet. However, I do not think this meant that there will be a duplication of the national Government at the county level. The idea was devolution and not decentralization or de-concentration. I sit in Committees and I have seen the way this Bill has evolved. I am finding it of concern that the Bill, and not only this one, but the others that will be brought to the House including the Public Finance Bill, has been diluted in very specific ways. Some of them, I do not want to use the word clandestinely. I wonder whether I could use another word, but it has been diluted delicately to get away the very essence and spirit of devolution. The very essence and spirit of devolution, as I said, was to give the power back to the people. Devolution was that instrument or that process where the power back to the grassroots, if only for those aspects of those particular counties and not national interest. I am afraid that what we are finding, even in this Bill, is that this has been diluted. Citizen participation has delicately been removed. That sort of participation at the ground level and even at the village level has been removed. The local authorities under LATF and LASDAP which have taken years to develop are now being thrown out with the birth water. I am afraid that if we do not re-institute that spirit in the County Governments Bill and reinstate the issue of citizen participation, we will have lost one of the pillars of devolution. I have a list of other things that we want to do, but we will send that through our normal Committee. Public participation in decision and law making was the pillar for devolution and it must remain the pillar of devolution. We do not want a county government which is a replica of the District Committee or the District Commissioner. We want a different institution and administration whose views are different and the spirit of participation is not limited by previous luggage or baggage that has been carried over since the colonial time. Many people talk about governors and I am sad to say that when people talk about governors, some of us who sat on the District Development Committees are against it. Many are talking about a governor’s residence. Much is spoken about the governor’s office. Even the Government came up with some suggestions that so much money is to be set aside for building new governors’ offices and residences. I felt like we have gone away from the very aspect of devolution. It does not matter whether the Governor sits in the office of the former mayor. It does not mean that we must have a new office or residence for the governor if we have the office and the residence of the Provincial Commissioner."
}