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{
    "id": 262624,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/262624/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 370,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. M.M. Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 74,
        "legal_name": "Ali Mohamud Mohamed",
        "slug": "ali-mohamud-mohamed"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. Let me start by saying that this is a very important Bill. Actually, of all the Bills resulting from the passage of the new Constitution by this House and Kenyans at large, I consider this Bill to be essential to the way we will be conducting our lives as a country. I want to note that the time given for us to pass these Bills is not adequate because the matters before hand are going to affect the lives of generations of Kenyans to come. Therefore, hon. Members should have had more time to peruse these documents, properly so that we can have value addition in the course of debate. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to point out the clause for the removal of the county assembly members. It states clearly the conditions under which county assembly members may be removed from office, and it gives a timeline. It says that after 18 months of being in office, under the conditions given, a county assembly member may be removed from office even though some of the conditions stated might be difficult to be evaluated. Clause 34(1), (2) and (3), in respect of removal of county governors from office does not give the timelines within which a county governor may be removed from office. That is to say immediately a county governor is elected into office, a group of people can sit down and decide that the county governor should be ousted from office, and that is going to be very dangerous. The opponents of governor-elects might wait until one finishes all his resources during the campaign then scheme and compromise the county assembly members. On the first day after elections, a county may lose its governor. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in order to avoid such dangers, I propose that we introduce some timelines like after two years or three years or something like that. In my view, leaving it open ended is very dangerous. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, allow me to speak to Article 86 whereby public participation is encouraged. This is very important. Citizens may submit petitions to the county assembly. However, it goes ahead and says the county assembly must deal with these petitions expeditiously. By saying “expeditiously”, what do we mean? Is two or three years expeditious enough? I think we must allocate some timelines and further qualify what we mean by expeditiously dealing with such issues. Article No.88, further refers to these kinds of petitions some of which may end up in a referendum for a county. My problem with that is that it goes ahead and says this referendum must be signed by not less than 25 per cent of the population within that county. In my opinion that is a threshold which is very high because some ideas might be very noble. An architect might come up with an idea which is very good for a county to improve on the infrastructure and such like things. Here the threshold is very high. Getting 25 per cent of the population is approval an idea is not easy. Remember it is not 25 per cent of the voters. It is for the whole population in the county. In my own view, that is rather high and we need to revisit it. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, functions of the county governors is clearly stipulated. It is relatively clear. I have no problem with it. But where I have an issue is about the sub-county administrators and likewise, ward administrators. I would wish that the functions of these two, include among the ones that you have already stated, they should be chairmen of peace and security committees in the sub-county and the wards, respectively. That is very important because these are some of the issues that we already spoke about and that is why we supported this very Clause. Allow me to speak to the wards as stipulated. It is a very good idea. However, when I see what the Interim Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has recently done, I have a lot of misgivings. We must not conduct such kind of exercises as mere public relations. Why am I saying this? In Marsabit County where I come from on 19th January, we submitted a memorandum and articulated reasons why we needed a few wards in that county. As you know, it is the biggest county in the country. You very well know because of some of the clauses in our Constitution, we could not qualify for any additional constituency as large as that county is. However, for us to be able to manage effectively the number of the communities that lives there, I thought the proposals that we made of the additional wards would have been upheld. It would have made it easy for us to manage and settle disputes among communities and they will be able to live peacefully. The issue to do with the constituency, if I may just mention, is concentrating very heavily only on population. This matter of population has disadvantaged a few counties in the northern parts of the country which naturally are not highly populated. You know too well that because of successive regimes that have kept that part of the country under a perpetual condition of under-development where the population cannot be expected to equal other parts of the country. You recall Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965 where the country was urged not to invest in the northern parts of the country because the returns are not as much. However, I acknowledge efforts by the Kibaki Administration. Immediately he came to power in 2002, the road from Isiolo to Moyale was embarked on. I am happy to report a section has already been handed over. The section from Marsabit to Isiolo the contractor is already on site. Save for this regime, both the other regimes from Independence up to the Moi era, had kept that part of the country in a condition that cannot be compared to the rest of the country. Therefore, I want to urge the Minister when we are dealing with this issue of the wards and also the boundaries Commission to be a little bit more considerate. I wonder why we have to go round the country collecting views from the citizens as far as boundaries are concerned and the only thing that we are looking at is the population. The Clerk of the National Assembly has got a lot of manpower. You can just key in that data into the computer and get which population is higher, which is less, which one qualifies and which one does not qualify and they get additional constituencies. That is the only factor that they are looking for. I appreciate the Equalization Fund to address the kinds of issues I have just articulated in this Bill. However, while the spirit is very good, the amount allocated, 0.5 per cent will not make any meaningful change if we are really serious about this concept of equalization fund. Unless maybe you have the intention of saying the 0.5 per cent, one year it goes to one county and you rotate it. I think we need to revisit that. The last item I want to refer to is the Clause on management of counties whereby the Central Government may uplift the mandate for any county to govern itself. Among others it has been listed that where there is persistent war and conflict then the management of that county will be by the Central Government. It is so unfortunate that currently we are experiencing such kinds of conflicts in my own county, specifically Moyale Constituency. Of course, there are conflicts in several other places like Pokot, Isiolo and the rest. I want to urge the citizens of this country and specifically I am appealing to my people, we stand to lose this county if we do not live in peace. We must be able to preach peace, appreciate each other and live harmoniously. Finally, as much as we are happy about this Bill and the opportunity we have to devolve the resources to the counties, I want to note that the speed with which the Government is facilitating the county governance system is not satisfactory. For example, assuming that the elections will be held in December this year, and that is the thinking of majority of the people and that we have a county government in place, where do we begin from. Civic education has not been conducted. Infrastructure has not been provided. The county government will have nowhere to conduct its business from. People will not operate in the air. People will not conduct their businesses in the open market. So I think so much needs to be done. Capacities of these counties need to be looked into, especially the same counties that I have referred to in the northern parts of the country. They may not even have the capacity to undertake the basic requirements of such kind of a governance system. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, while I commend the Minister and the Ministry at large for a lot of effort put in, we have a lot of home work to do. With those few remarks, I support."
}