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{
    "id": 380929,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I heard the Senate Majority Leader say that we are keeping in tune with Article 203. I want to draw to the attention of the Senate to Article 203(b) which talks about the need to ensure that county governments are able to perform functions allocated to them. This is the same one that lists out the items that we are supposed to be thinking about when we are devolving funds to these counties. I am aware that there will be an amendment to give effect to that particular Article, 203(d). However, it is not enough for us to keep on fighting about these Articles. I think the national Government should be aware of some of these things. They should not wait for us to go and start fighting. I can imagine that there will be quarrels that will start, effective, the day we pass this Bill. There will be arguments that will start between certain counties, like the counties of Mombasa, Nyeri and others that will be in deficit effective that time. As I finish, I want to say that the structure of the county budgets ought to be the same as the country budgets. In other words, the votes that we see in the county budgets should be the same as in the country governments. The reason I say this because it becomes easier to make reference. In addition to that, there is easy comparison and accountability. The current budget you read in the counties talks about vehicles among others things. These are itemized in terms of the activities rather than in the area of allocation. That is not proper accounting. Finally, I think, we, as a Senate, should encourage our county governments to look within. We should think in terms of a balance sheet. We must ask ourselves: This is the money that we want to spend and these are all the wishes that we have in developing our counties, but to balance that, as Luca Pacioli determined many years ago, where is this money coming from? Some money will come from the national Government. However, we cannot rely on the national Government to be the engine which is going to develop our counties. Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the key reasons we devolved this Government is to be able to refocus a little bit more on the resources and opportunities that exist in our counties. For example, yesterday, I was talking to my good friend, the Senator from Baringo. He told me that in Baringo, they are looking at exploiting gas. There is a lot of gas there because of all the steam that comes out. Therefore it is possible to bring a lot of geothermal power. This is not new because geothermal power has been around for a long time, but an elected county Governor and Senator can refocus their energy to exploit that facility more than somebody sitting in Nairobi. But in order to do so, I will, once again, allude to something that Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o talked about. That is the issue of focusing so internally in terms of skills that you become unable to move forward. Madam Temporary Speaker, this nation has developed partially because we have got a lot of expatriates who have worked in Kenya from far parts of the world. Let us not shy away from getting skills from any part of this country and on earth. There might be need to do so,in order to develop these skills. I would rather have a Canadian working in Nyeri County and create 1,000 jobs, than a Nyerian, working in Nyeri, who is able to create only two jobs. 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."
}