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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to talk about Cluase 11, which is on inter-governmental relations technical committee. Here is a technical committee comprising of members that will be recruited competitively by the summit. This is the body that carries out the functions of the summit. It is the functional arm of the summit upon the summit making recommendations, and upon the summit making decisions that should be carried out. I would want to request that although appointments to the membership to such a committee can be done by the summit, let such a committee, upon appointments made by the summit get the approval of the Senate, or let us have the appointments done by the Public Service Commission, and have the approval done by the summit. That would give more legitimacy to the technical committee for them to be able to carry out many of its functions without any fear of intimidation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, under Clause 12, we have a technical committee that will be established as soon as the county governments come into being. We also have a transitional authority that will be established before the county governments come into place. We have some of the functions of the technical committee being carrying out the residual functions of the transition entity established under the law relating to transition to devolved governments after the dissolution of such an entity. It would also be very important to outline in this Bill what the relationship between this technical committee and the transitional authority will be when both entities come into place. If you expect the technical committee to carry on the functions of the transitional authority after it is dead, there has to be such relationship so as to ensure that there will be continuity of institutional memory. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that also goes hand in hand with Clauses 24, 25 and 26, which also reiterate the issues of transfer and delegation of powers and functions, and competencies between the county governments and the national Government. So, at least, the technical committee has to have some way of its relationship with the transitional authority outlined when both bodies are in place. I would also want to make recommendations on Clause 19. Whereas we have outlined that the summit will include the President and, in his absence, the Deputy President, we have not made similar allowance regarding when the governors are absent that the deputy governors can deputise, or sit in place of, the governors. Therefore, Clause 19 has to incorporate a sub-clause to provide that when a governor is absent, the deputy governor of that county can sit in the council on behalf of the governor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Clause 22, and in many other clauses, the council is required by the Bill that it shall submit annual reports, and that three months after the financial year, those reports will be deliberated upon by the Senate and the National Assembly, which will make recommendations – which recommendations I asked whether they will be binding or not. It should also be clear when these annual reports should be made. The Bill should state whether these should be annual reports that should be made in December, or should be annual reports that should coincide with the calendar years of the assemblies, or should be annual reports that will coincide with the financial year of the Government. That has to be clearly stipulated in the Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of voting versus consensus when it comes to decision-making by the summit and the council, it should be appreciated that this is a body that should harmonise relationships within counties and between the National Government and counties. I would also go by the Bill’s recommendation that most of the decisions, if not all, should be by consensus. I do not think we need to create an ivory tower in everything. Even in consultative forum like this one that are supposed to hold the country together, if we go by the way of trying to see where power is, and say that we should have a voting entity every matter, we will be making very wrong decisions. Let us say, for example, there is an issue of concern to both the counties and the National Government. Here, we would have the summit voting, with the President’s one vote, taking care of the national interest and 47 governors ganging up to take care of the interests of the counties. How would such decision be taken when we would have 47 governors voting on one side? Maybe, there is a plan to rip off something, or there is an issue of so much concern to the county governments, and here is a Head of State with only one vote, saying: think you are taking a wrong decision. So, not all issues should be subjected to voting. Consensus should be best suited to trying to harmonise issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is the more reason why all the reports and all the deliberations and decisions that shall be made by the summit should be submitted to the National Assembly, the Senate and the county assemblies for them to review such decisions. Where they are dissatisfied with summit recommendations and decisions, they should also be able to convey such dissatisfaction in the form of recommendations to the summit. When we were, as Kenyans, asking that we should have county governments, it was the feeling that we create executive county officers who would exercise as much power as we as our previous presidents had. I would, therefore, want to appeal to my colleagues in this Assembly who are aspiring to be governors to tone down a little, because some of the recommendations we put in the Bill whose debate we have just concluded were such that we would create ivory towers for governors in county governments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some hon. Members were proposing that the threshold of a third of the county assembly membership provided as sufficient to propose a motion of censure or a motion of removal of a governor from office was too low. I would want to appeal to hon. Members to see the sense that if we fix the threshold too high – at a half or two-thirds of the membership of a county assembly – for them to think of impeaching a governor or moving a Motion against him, we will be setting a standard that would see no governor removed from office, irrespective of the crime that such a governor may have committed. Even the Constitution fixes a threshold of only one third of the membership of the National Assembly for an impeachment of the President. A governor is not bigger than the President of this nation. So, a third of the membership of the county assembly, or even a lower threshold, should be allowed to move a censure Motion if a governor behaves in a manner that impedes the efforts of a county government to develop. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even though debate on the previous Bill has been concluded, I would like to urge the Minister in charge to specifically look at that provision, because the process of removing a governor from office on grounds of incompetence or health is not the same as when you remove a governor for bad habits. One case needs some input from the medical field. With those many remarks, I beg to support the Bill."
}