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{
    "id": 386213,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/386213/?format=api",
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    "content": "do with the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) and other monies that cascaded down, our role is to see that, that money is properly utilized. I want to reiterate that I believe that the county assembly members are going to be the most important tool in this regard. We must remind the members of the county assemblies that they are not councillors. They have got an extremely different role that they have to play. That is the role of seeing to it that devolution works. Therefore, they must be treated in a way that takes due regard to the role that they have to play. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I know that it is not, maybe, right for us to discuss the issues of salaries and things like those at this level, but I think that it is wrong to give a member of the county assembly the role that I have said they have, and then when it comes to remuneration, treat them worse than the councillors were treated. If we have to stem corruption and make the assembly members at the county level work like I believe they should work, to see that the funds that they get are properly utilized in the counties, then I believe that they are people that need to be properly remunerated and not paid the paltry sum that was proposed for the members of the county assemblies by the Serem Commission. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have an oversight role and must talk freely about these issues without fear or favour. It is up to us to see to it that things in this country are going right. We are the glue that is going to bring together and cement our counties which, together make that unit called the Republic of Kenya which all of us have sworn to protect at all times. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Vision 2030 is important to all of us. One of the things that we must guard against, if we are to achieve Vision 2030, is corruption. I have not forgotten the year 2003 when the NARC Government came into power. I remember how citizens, in the belief that we were in a new dispensation, and because they had been burdened by that yoke of corruption, became law enforcers. They arrested policemen at roadblocks when they took bribes. Citizens did what I thought was right then and even today. Unfortunately, we lost the momentum. I would like to see us accelerate and follow that momentum, so that together we fight corruption. This is because corruption is the biggest bane that will make us not achieve Vision 2030. Yesterday, I heard that corruption or money that goes into corrupt pockets is as much as Kshs380 billion a year. That is money enough to build classrooms, buy laptops and all the equipment that we need for our children. So, we must guard against corruption. We, as Senators with the oversight role that we have, must see to it, without fear or favour, that the county governments that we oversee are run free of corruption as much as possible. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to briefly consider the issue of education. We talked about laptops the whole of yesterday and I am sure that they will be discussed today. There are those skeptics who think that it is not a good idea to have laptops because some areas do not have classrooms or because there are not enough teachers to teach our children on issues of Information Communication Technology (ICT). It is that procrastination and fear of trying new things that has kept us so backwards for so many years. When we started the Free Primary Education (FPE) programme in 2003, there were skeptics. There were those people who said that they did not believe that it would work. There are those people who said that we were wasting money and that maybe we needed new classrooms instead of FPE. But the last ten years have proved that the FPE 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."
}