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{
    "id": 380416,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380416/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 447,
        "legal_name": "John Krop Lonyangapuo",
        "slug": "john-lonyangapuo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity and also thank my Chairman, Sen. Kagwe for introducing and bringing this Motion at the early stages of the life of this Senate, especially now that we are anchoring on devolution. The players of devolution, that is, the Upper House, which is the Senate, should link directly with the county assemblies in order to make sure that devolution takes root and it works. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, about two years, to be precise in January, 2011, I remember it was about five months after the Constitution was promulgated, the Ministry of Public Works then together with other Ministries decided to come up with offices in the county assemblies. The idea was a replica and a mini-version of the current parliament where the National Assembly sits at the moment. We should also remember that the Senate Chamber is coming up next to that Chamber and a lot of money has been put in, that is, about Kshs2.2 billion for building offices for the Senators and the Chamber. There was an idea that county assemblies must be the same in every county. The building you enter should be the same everywhere including Lodwar, the headquarters for Turkana County. This is because we are now decentralizing and devolving power from one source to 47 assemblies. Budgets and drawings were done including visits across the nation. Photographs were taken and designs done. Some of the counties, for example, where the Temporary Speaker comes from, have no office up to now. They have not inherited any office which was for the municipal council. This is the same in Garissa and West Pokot. Sen. Obure was the Minister in charge and Treasury also gave out money for initial visits. I was the Permanent Secretary then and I even sent people to India and South Africa. Very noble ideas were brought and they could have made it easier for the Motion introduced by Sen. Kagwe where every MCA would have an office, installed and equipped with the latest infrastructure required for an office of that calibre. Owing to the Commissions we have put in place, somebody said that we could not build county assemblies before governors were in place. As you know, governors have no relation with county assemblies. You can now see that we could have put this right. A budget of Kshs10 billion would have been enough. A few counties like Uasin Gishu and Nyeri are not so badly off. However, the chambers also needed to be modified to resemble what we have here. Kenyans are very good in criticising any idea whose time has come. If we followed that, we would not be where we are today. We would be talking about counties whose structures resemble and which can discharge their duties appropriately. If Senators or even the President wanted to go and address county assemblies there would be no problem. However, as it is, some counties are meeting in make shift areas. We want county governors to have chambers where they can work. They have nowhere to sit and yet people are flocking around them with all manner of problems. I visited my governor and found 150 people waiting to see a man who was already looking The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}