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"content": "the functions and exercise of the powers of the county government under the Fourth Schedule. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I raise the issues on the Bill, the parts of the Fourth Schedule that are relevant I think is Part I which has the functions of the national government in relation to agriculture are in Part 29 which says that the functions of the national government in agriculture should strictly be agricultural policy. There is also Part 22 which is also useful; that is, the protection of the environment and natural resources with a view to establishing a durable and sustainable system of development including, in particular, fishing, hunting and gathering. That is basically that. However, the function in terms of implementation has actually been given the county governments. Part 2(I) reads:- “The functions and powers of the county are agriculture including crop and animal husbandry, livestock sale yards, county abattoirs, plant and animal disease control and fisheries”. It further gives the county governments the powers over markets and marketing and several other issues related to that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bills before us, if you check the Authorities that are being established, for example, if you read the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Authority Bill, Clause 4(a) gives the powers of regulation to this Authority. It says that the functions of the Authority shall be - Part (b) says: Promote best practices. If it was just promote, I would not have any problems. However, it goes ahead to say “and regulate the production, processing, marketing, grading”. If you look at the Fourth Schedule, some of these functions are actually functions of the county governments. Apparently, maybe the technocrats of the Ministry of Agriculture are trying to re-engineer the particular Ministry to include these issues. If you even read Clause 5(a), it subordinates the decisions of the county governments to the national governments. If you read that particular clause through, you will find that this Authority belongs to the national government but it seeks to do matters that belong to the county governments. If you read Clause 6 (a), it says that it is an agent of the national government. So, why does it involve itself in implementation if implementation of agriculture policy is the function of the national government? It allocates the Cabinet Secretary responsibilities of scheduling crops and probably determining where they will be generally grown. They give him powers to regulate as to the scheduling of a variety of crops. The Constitution never envisaged that. I think that is found in Clause 7. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 8 gives it authority to ensure---. The word, “ensure”” actually has force. It will ensure all the way down. It will, therefore, be doing work and superintending over the counties instead of coming out with policies. In fact, Clause 9 also gives itself the powers of charging levies on crops. If it is going to be involved in charging of levies on crops, what then is the function of the county governments? I am talking about the Crops Bill. I must apologize because I am reading both Bills and maybe I have not indicated exactly which Bill I was referring to. When I talk about Schedule Five, I am talking about the Crops Bill. When I am talking about Schedule Six I am still talking about the Crops Bill. When I talk about"
}