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{
    "id": 347025,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/347025/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
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    "content": "So, it is not you to determine arbitrarily and say that today you want to give the counties 20 per cent or 26 per cent or 30 per cent. The allocation will depend on what functions the county governments are going to carry out. The money is supposed to follow the functions and it is the CRA which is supposed to do the work of ensuring that the money follows the functions. We cannot trust anybody else to do it. In any case, it is unconstitutional to allow anybody else to attempt to do that work. Of course the Commission can be assisted with technical advice from other Government bodies. After all, this is a co-operative Government. The structure of our Constitution is such that it encourages co-operation between the various Government organs and institutions, so that we are able to deliver the services that we are supposed to deliver to the people of Kenya. So, there should be functional analysis, on which allocation of resources should be based. Therefore, we have to be convinced when we are being told what has been given to the counties; how that allocation has been arrived at, on the basis of the functions that the county governments are going to carry out. We should be informed of the functions that have been transferred to the county governments at that particular time. Of course, I do not think the county governments will be able to carry out all public functions within the first year of devolution. So, as we keep transferring the functions to the counties, the resources being transferred to the counties should keep increasing. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, another key issue is that there are certain functions which even though they are national functions, they would better be run by the county governments. The Constitution, again, makes it very clear. The national Government can transfer certain functions to the counties so that, because county governments are closer to the people, they can implement policies better and carry out supervision. For instance, I do not see why the national Government would still want to continue building classrooms for primary schools and attempting or pretending that it can supervise the construction of a classroom in every primary school. Even thought that may be a national Government function, it would be better carried out by the county governments, which are closer to the people. County government officials can visit each and every primary school and make sure that the infrastructure that is supposed to be built in the counties is done. So, those are the issues I wanted to raise but overall, I thank the Government, the Minister and members of staff in the Ministry for working very hard to make sure that things work, so that once the elections are done, the counties can start functioning to ensure that delivery of service is better done. Devolution was brought because the national Government was not able to take care of the people at the grassroots level. Resources were being allocated every year but most of it would be spent at the centre. So, people became poorer in the regions and at the grassroots level. So, devolution was intended to empower people in the rural areas, economically. However, you realise that you cannot empower the people without resources being sent there. Neither can you empower them when you continue macro-managing them at the national level. So, you must devolve the structures of governance to the bottom and devolve the resources as well. If you devolve the structures without devolving the resources, you will continue starving them of resources and there will be no"
}