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{
    "id": 333412,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/333412/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 549,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "There are two points on this one. There is the issue of population. We must be a wonderful country, that one corner of the country can have its population growing in a period of ten years from, probably, 300,000 or 400,000 people to two million people. When you subject it to the dynamics of demography, you will find that even in that increment from 300,000 to two million people, there are more men than women in that population. As leaders of this country, I believe that these are some of the things that we will iron out when we will have proper orientation of the new Constitution so that statistics on population reflect the truth on the ground. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is more is the issue of poverty index. It is very easy for a mischievous Minister to play around with this index, so that some areas in the country can purport be poorer in order to access more resources. The third point I want to make is on the errors in the recording of population. I have a particular experience where in the former Western Province, had the greater Busia District. In the last census the Teso Community was counted under the greater Bungoma District. So, whereas the population of Busia reflects to be small, it is because the Tesos of Busia were counted under Bungoma. So, if this is not corrected, it means that funds meant to develop Busia will be sent to Bungoma and the people of Busia will have smaller or less access to resources for development than Bungoma. These are things that we must talk about if the minority groups live in our midst, for example, us we have majority. If we do not address this issue, then our brothers who live in our region as minorities will lose confidence in the principle of devolution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the fourth point that I want to make is on the role of the vote that is given to the county. Let governors and county assemblies know that this money will not be taken there for purposes of devolving corruption from Nairobi to the counties. I hope that all of them will be reading to know that the Senate will have a say on the corruption that will go on in those counties. We want to put them on very early notice. I want to put them on very early notice. We have a history of pursuing corruption and we will make sure that no governor, be it in Taveta, Machakos or Makueni, will be allowed to play around with public resources meant to improve the lives of our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir looking at the 15 per cent plus that we are taking to the counties, you realize that it looks like this money is just going to be used for remuneration. My thinking and my campaign for the new Constitution was on the understanding that this money was going to go to the county governments for development. However, if it is going to be used for buying cars, fueling and paying salaries of the civil servants who work there, then all that we have done is that we have"
}