Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 263126,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/263126/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 104,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Munya",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for East African Community",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 279,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Konzolo Munyao",
        "slug": "joseph-munyao"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for allowing me to also contribute to this extremely important Bill that will implement devolution in the new Constitution. When we look at all the changes and the revolution that will be brought by the new Constitution, in my opinion, the most important and far reaching change that it will bring is devolution. When we judge the success or failure of the new Constitution, I think the judgment will be passed when we see whether devolution has worked or not. There are people who have opinions about many other issues but in my opinion, that is the most important change that the new Constitution will bring. Why am I saying so? I am saying this because under the old order when everything was centralized, the rural areas or regions were starved of resources. They were starved of money so that economic growth and GDP was concentrated around Nairobi. Most of our GDP, even when we say that our economy is growing at this rate and that it will join the middle income countries soon, if we went the way we were going without restructuring our governance, the GDP would still be growing here in Nairobi and people in the rural areas would have been watching Nairobi growing and becoming like one of the mini states like Singapore while the rest of the country would remain poor. That is why you were seeing a lot of conflict developing and people becoming restive and angry down there. So, this is what will change Kenya completely because we are devolving resources down to the regions. We are devolving power so that people are in control of their destiny in the rural areas. That is why the way we structure this in terms of the law is critically important. I want to thank the Minister and the taskforce that worked on these Bills because they have done a great job. They have really interpreted what the people of Kenya want in the right way and they have put it in the law. They have strictly followed the Constitution. We know that there were forces that were not happy with what was happening, especially bureaucrats in Government who always benefit from vested interests that give a lot of power to them. Those ones were not going to accept change quickly. That is why even the Finance Bill is causing a lot of problems. This is because there are people who do not want to let it go. There are people who feel that the power they have been exercising---"
}