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{
    "id": 263580,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/263580/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Nanok",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Forestry and Wildlife",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 57,
        "legal_name": "Josephat Koli Nanok",
        "slug": "josephat-nanok"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for having been given this chance to second this Bill. Indeed, as articulated by the Minister, this is a clearly thought out Bill. As he has just said, this Bill is late in coming. It should even have come last year, many months before the constitutional deadline comes to an end so that the preparatory work for county governments can be put in place. While I agree with most of the information contained in the Bill, there are however, certain aspects of this Bill that can be improved on by this House so that we can give Kenyans who have been yearning for devolved government, a much better law and when county governments will be in place, they would have better guidelines to be able to transit themselves from the centralized system of governance that this country is used to; a system that gives power and resources down to the grassroots. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to mention that the focus of devolution should have been two-front. Essentially if you look at the county government, we are looking at devolved Executive powers and devolved Legislature. However, looking at Clause 5 of this Bill, you find that there is heavy membership from the Executive on this, forgetting that the county assembly is a legislative arm of the county government. I will urge this House and the Minister, by extension, to relook at this so that the legislative arm here, be it Parliament or whatever, should be represented in the composition of this Authority so that the county assembly legislative functions are taken care of when it comes to issues of transferring some of these powers. I also find that the composition of this Authority is too heavy on the National Government. The Bill proposes a total of 17 members; seven are already pre-determined. These are the principal secretaries of the different Ministries responsible for the relevant sectors. One will be the secretary appointed by the Authority. Only nine members will be appointed by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this may end up being the same problem we will be fearing before; that probably only one arm of the Government that is going to determine this transition. I think we have to be very careful here so that at least when we are giving other stakeholders outside the National Government the possibility of being participants of this, will be useful. I am worried because when the Bill was published, I did not hear the provincial administration that is dominant all over talking and making a lot of noise. May be they have a way in which they want to get themselves into this Transitional Authority to determine and make sure that the things that this country abolished through enacting a new Constitution are brought back again by controlling this Authority. So, I would like the Minister to relook into this so that we do not have heavy national membership on this particular body. There is heavy national membership on this particular body."
}