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    "id": 383517,
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    "content": "secondary and post-secondary education and even primary education are vested in the national government which is one level. Other educational functions such as early childhood education are vested in county governments. So, there are some concurrent functions between the two levels of government. Finally, still under Article 186, we have what we call residual functions. These are spelt out in Article 186(3) of the Constitution which says; I will paraphrase, where a function has not been stated to belong to whether national or county government, such function shall belong to the national government. In other words, the national government retains residual powers to deal with any function of government that is not stated anywhere in Schedule Four. It is in this connection; therefore, in trying to contextualize this Motion, this Motion is saying that in any of those cases, namely; where you have exclusive jurisdiction or concurrent jurisdiction or residual jurisdiction, that the powers can be transferred in any of those cases from one level of government to another. You will find that in Article 187. Under Article 187, the transfer of functions, whether concurrent, exclusive or residual from one level of government to another, is only done by agreement between the two levels of government. They must agree. The Inter-Governmental Relations Act of 2012 which is one of the laws passed to implement the Devolution Chapter of our Constitution provides that such agreement or transfer of functions must be in writing between the national government and the county governments. In a nutshell, Articles 186 and 187 are trying to say that the national government can transfer some of its functions to the county governments and vice-versa . The county governments can also transfer some their functions to the national government. However, there must be an agreement which should be in writing. This Motion, secondly, sets out the purposes and why the Mover of the Motion is requesting for the transfer of the education function; specifically the equipping and the provision of infrastructure of primary and secondary schools from the national government to the county governments. This one says – the answer is in the Constitution - such transfers are necessary if it is deemed that the level of government to which the function is being transferred can perform more effectively. So, there is an effectiveness test that must be met before one makes a case for the transfer of functions. According to the Mover of this Motion, the equipping of primary schools and the provision of infrastructure in those educational facilities are better handled by the county governments and not by the national government. However, since the Constitution, right now, assigns those functions to the national government, the only legitimate way of having the county governments undertake these functions – equipping of primary and secondary schools and the provision of infrastructure – is by way of agreement. This is by way of following the criteria set out in Article 186, read together with Article 187 of the Constitution. The last thing I want to mention which is in our Constitution and which has been referred to by this Motion is that the transfer of functions must be accompanied by resources. So, where one level of government transfers functions to another level, the 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."
}