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"content": "their Senator and for electing His Excellency the President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as the President of this country with an overwhelming number of votes. I was elected as the second highest elected member of an elective office with the highest number of votes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in Kiambu County, we currently have a crisis that may as well be the litmus test for the resolve of the Senate in showing the direction on how our county should be run and how consultative means should be used to arrive at county decisions. The gazetted headquarters for Kiambu County is in Kiambu Town. Recently, the Governor of Kiambu County arbitrarily decided that he will move the county headquarters of Kiambu County to Thika Town without consulting or holding any forum where people would be able to give their views. The explanation as given by the Governor’s office is that, that move is temporary, but there is no temporary inconvenience to members of the public. It is important that we, as the Senate, show that, indeed, we are able to carry out the responsibility to give and show direction as we are mandated to do by the Constitution on behalf of our counties. I urge the House, through your guidance and leadership, to save most of the people of Kiambu and set the stage for a procedure that will be followed in future, that will involve consultation on all major decisions, not only for my county, but for all counties in this country. Thus, I urge the House to urgently look into the possibility of quickly coming up with a Motion that will gazette headquarters for all counties in their respective towns. Mr. Speaker, Sir, until recently, everytime when floods were mentioned, the name that would quickly come into the minds of Kenyans was Budalang’i. But as recently as three weeks ago, Kiambu now is a household name that is in the mouth of everybody who has been talking about floods. For the last three weeks, the residents of Kiambu County in the areas of Thika, Juja, Ruiru and Ruaka have been marooned by floods, hardly able to access schools, health facilities and homes. It is important then for this Senate to move urgently and adequately in taking our role to the counties so that devolution can start rolling out and ensure that adequate and appropriate measures are taken. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we speed up the process of taking devolution to the counties, we will also succeed in wrestling down the giant ogre of unemployment, which has been strangling the youth. When I say that, I have in mind towns in my own county, that is, Thika and Ruiru. Two decades ago, the towns of Thika and Ruiru were known all over this country as the bulging industrial centres of this country. Misdirected resources, failure of directed expertise and support has seen these towns going down and being dilapidated and all the factories and investments which have been done in these two towns becoming useless. Currently, we have a crisis in Thika in one of the major companies, namely, the Kenya Vehicles Manufacturers (KVM). The KVM is an entity in which the Government of Kenya has invested over 50 per cent of the entire investment. As late as one month ago, because of boardroom wrangles which have been involving CMC Motors and DT Dobie, one of the shareholders has decided to move all the assembly works from Thika Town to Mombasa. Currently, the people of Kiambu, who 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."
}