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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I could not agree more with what the hon. Member has said. One last point about the senate is in respect of the decisions of the summit. The Minister provides expressly in this Bill that those decisions must receive approval of the senate. If a decision of the summit where the only representative of the county was the governor and maybe because this governor comes from a small state, he was overrun by the so-called majority within that summit, then when the resolution is brought before the senate, the senate will be able to put into consideration some of the minority views that might have been overrun during the meeting of the summit. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one last little thing on the structure; and I want to request the Minister to go to Clause 7 of this Bill. In Clause 7 you are saying that the summit shall comprise of those people. I want to propose that the summit comprises of the President who shall be the chairperson. Delete, “or Deputy President’ and then Governors of the 47 counties. On sub-section (3) delete the words, “Chairperson of the council elected under section 19” because we have advised and requested you that you delete the council of county governance and, therefore, subsection (3) is out. I want to suggest that you put subsection (3) to read, “The Deputy President who shall be the vice-person of the summit”. Why do I say so? This is because under the new Constitution, we do not contemplate a situation whereby the Deputy President is the assistant of the President only to be going there to be representing the President. The Deputy President under the Constitution enjoys Executive powers to the extent that if the President was to collapse and die or was to resign or was to be declared bankrupt, the Deputy President immediately assumes office for the balance of the term. Now, imagine a situation whereby the Deputy President has never had an opportunity to sit in the summit because the President was always attending and then the President vacates office, the Deputy President takes over, he goes there and he is a completely new man. We want the Deputy President to be there all the time for purposes of institutional memory and continuity in the event of the worst happening; in other words, the President leaving office. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I want to speak on the provincial administration. The new Constitution provides that the Government will restructure the provincial administration so that it is brought into alignment whit the devolved government. Now, if we are now providing for legislation for the county government and we do not use this opportunity to realign the provincial administration when do we want to do it? Do we want to do it through a Private Member’s Bill? Do we want to do it through a strike by Assistant Chiefs and Chiefs across the country because they feel they are not being listened to? The time to do it is now! How do we do it? We must accept that creating parallel government will create, as my brother Munya said, the possibility of collision. Time has come for us to say that the provincial administration in its current form is no longer tenable with the new Constitution. Therefore, I propose that Minister goes back and provides that Assistant Chiefs, Chiefs and DOs in charge of division be given a different name exist but under the county Governor. Period! The President should sit up there, huko juu, akae huko. Tutakutana naye hapa. I am sorry, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to have used two languages at the same time. I apologize. We can do this in this law by looking at clause 8 which provides for the functions of the summit. Where you say, “consultation and cooperation between the National and County Governments” you can add another proviso that, “The summit can be dealing with matters and performing duties that were hitherto performed and dealt with by the provincial administration with a view of abolishing the provincial administration as contemplated by the new Constitution”. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I cannot sit down before once again begging the Deputy Prime Minister that if you will bring on board some of the suggestions I am making about the provincial administration do it in the realm of the reality on the ground. If you are going to yield to some of the demands of some Members of Parliament that we completely remove the provincial administration so that we leave matters of security to the police, that sounds very American and very European like. However, in the situation in Kakamega when a cow of Regina Khaswaha crosses and eats two storks of maize in the neighbouring farm if you bring in the police, he will take this matter to court and it will take five years to be resolved. When you have the village elder, he provides an immediate solution; they are fined one head of chicken, it is paid and the families come together. That is how we live. Those are the village courts. We would like you to recognize our village elders and provide that our village elders be paid a salary. Because I will not speak on this again, I want to urge the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government to prevail over the Minister for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 and prevail over the Government that the village elders who counted people during the census have not been paid up to now. I want the Minister for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 who wants to be the Governor of Kakamega, to come and pronounce in Kakamega that he is not only paying the village elders in Kakamega but also all the village elders in the whole country. We cannot have a situation whereby we live good lives driving four-wheel drives; I own a Mercedes Benz and yet the people who enable us to earn the money that enables us to buy these things, we steal from them. Mr. Oparanya, the Deputy Prime Minister and your Government, you must pay our village elders a salary and remember their earnings during the census. With these remarks, I beg to support."
}