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{
    "id": 386449,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/386449/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from a county that is largely depended or known for sports. Over 80 per cent of the Olympic winners or champions are from Elgeyo- Marakwet County. Yet the sports facilities in the county are dilapidated. One of the renowned stadia is Kamaring Stadium, which is one of the few places that Queen Elizabeth visited. It is in a deplorable state. When you go there, you will not know that a queen visited it at one time. That is a stadium that has made this country what it is when it comes to sports. When you go there, you will find cows grazing. The Qatar Government was interested in investing and assisting in building that stadium. Although that stadium is not one of the things that Jubilee Government promised to build, I believe that there is an opportunity for us to invest in it and give it back to Elgeyo-Marakwet because it is a county that has made this country shine. One of the private investors in sports in our county is Madam Lorna Kiplagat. She is known for half-marathon and New York Marathon. She is now building one of the best private stadia. It will be the only other privately owned stadium in Africa after the one in Ethiopia by Gabrielle Haile Sellasie. She needed some kind of facilitation from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports, but nothing was done to assist her. If she is going to put up an investment of over Kshs200 million, the Government should be able to find mechanisms to facilitate her. This House should be able to amend legislation that removes bottlenecks for such investors so that they can build good stadia to continue harnessing the sports potential in this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about devolution because it is my pet subject. Devolution is the reason I am in this House. It is the reason we are all here. As the President said, it is not a gift or a promise, but a right as provided for in the Constitution. There is a lot to be done by this House to ensure that devolution works. I served as a member of the task force on devolved government. I chaired the team that went all over the Rift Valley and I realized that there is a lot of work to be done. I participated in the initial drafting of the six legislations; one of which is the mother legislation of the County Government Act, 2012. There are things that are done like the unbundling of functions. If you look at the functions of county governments in Schedule IV (2), you will realize that those functions are mentioned in only one sentence or one word, but they mean a lot. For example, if they say that sports, sports stadia and sports facilities are a function of county governments, what does that mean? To me, it means that the money that is meant for building sports stadia or sports facilities should be channelled to the county governments because it is their responsibility. When it says that agriculture is a function of county government, it means that a large percentage of the resources for agriculture should be channelled through county governments. When it talks about water and irrigation to be county functions, it means that the resources for such should go to the county. When you talk about health facilities, it means that the money meant for health facilities should go to the county. 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."
}