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"speaker_name": "Mr. Musila",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Defence",
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me first begin by congratulating you this morning for taking the Chair. I want to join my colleagues who contributed previously on this very important Bill and to, first of all, congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government for formulating this Bill; The County Governments Bill. This is so important because it operationalizes the Constitution is as far as devolution is concerned. Having looked at it carefully, I think it is good. However, I would like to make some observations. First, Section 13 of the Bill, last week when Mr. Imanyara was making his contributions alluded to the fact that the County Assembly rules must be uniform all over the Republic. I think this is so important because if we do not take care, we could have different counties having different sets of rules or debate. Therefore, I suggest that initially the rules be initiated by this House because the county assemblies will be meeting after the elections. In the absence of any rules, there will be a vacuum even before those rules are formulated. So I am suggesting that this House takes charge of the rules. It should make rules that will be adopted by county assemblies. In future, I would like to suggest that we have a body, for instance, all the speakers of the counties of the Republic form something like what the governors will form; an association of governors. We could also have an association for county speakers, so that from time to time through the various organs of the county review the rules of procedure of all the assemblies and ensure that there is uniformity. The key word here is uniformity because if there is no uniformity in the rules of debate that govern the procedures of houses then we will have a lot of confusion in this country. Therefore, I would like to urge the Minister to ensure that the rules are formulated initially, probably, with the assistance of the Clerk of this House. Later on, those rules be adopted by the assemblies. This will ensure that there is uniformity, so that any amendment in any one assembly in terms of the rules of debate will be send across the country, so that we do not have disparities in this area. Part IV of the Bill is delimitation of county wards. I noticed that this Bill borrows very heavily from the Kangu Committee that went round and took views. That is where the delimitation of boundaries comes from. In fact, the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) appears to have already taken, particularly the population quota that is recommended by the Kangu Committee, use it here. The IEBC has already given the county wards that they want to be given to the country. I think you are agree with me that this exercise by the IEBC was done without a legal framework. However, it has already been done and now this House is being asked rubberstamp what has already been done. Therefore, I want to suggest, through the Minister that the delimitation of boundaries as suggested by the Kangu Committee is not, in my view, fair because it is 26,000 plus or minus 40 per cent in urban areas and 30 per cent in sparsely populated areas. From my experience from the wards that have been given by the IEBC, some wards are too huge in terms of land mass. There are so many disparities in the way the IEBC has formulated the wards at the moment. But to make the matter worse, in the law that we previously passed here in as far as it affects constituencies, this House has a say. After the IEBC has delimitated constituencies, they are supposed to bring the results here as they have already done. This House will deliberate on it through the Committee and the whole House, make comments and return them to the IEBC for finalization. I note with concern that in the case of county wards, it appears like this House will have no role after the IEBC delimitates the wards; it is like the end of the matter. I would like to suggest to the Minister that this House should have a role. After the boundaries have been decided by the IEBC as they have already done, this House should give its comments to the IEBC before they finalize it. After going through this Bill, I have not seen where this House will have a role like it did with the constituencies. The report on boundaries will come here and we will have a say. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will then review based on our comments. But, in this case, it does not appear so. I would like to recommend that this be the case."
}