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"id": 393489,
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"speaker_name": "The Senate Majority Leader",
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"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
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"content": "(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Senator for Homa Bay is supporting me. The word “Minister” is not there. The word that is used is “Cabinet Secretary” which is the equivalent. My argument is that the officers who are serving as members of the executive committee are neither ministers nor Cabinet Secretaries. They are members of a committee, period. Mr. Speaker, Sir, having said that, I also want to call for humility from public servants. I am saying this because in the last two weeks, we have seen the Senate, including our able colleague, the Senator for Nandi, being under siege from public servants and constitutional Commissions, who are using funerals and birthdays to try and interfere with the legislative authority of this House. I want to warn public servants that the Constitution says that the legislative authority of the Republic of Kenya is vested in the people of Kenya and exercised through Parliament, mainly the National Assembly and the Senate. On the matter of making law, we are not subjects to a public servant, Cabinet Secretaries or any Commission. We are only subject to the people of Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the interest of time, I want to say that without county assemblies, devolution is dead. We can as well forget devolution. We are not going to allow devolution to die because if it dies, then the Senate is also dead. So, I want to send this message loud and clear; that going forward, the Senate will not sit idle and watch county assemblies grinding to a halt. So, we will do whatever it takes and is required to ensure that the county assemblies start operating immediately. So, we are requesting the Chair of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to do her job immediately. We are also requesting the Senate Committee on Devolved Government to make an arbitration effort. Before going through the adversarial system of summons, let us try to arbitrate between the SRC and MCAs, but within a very short period of time, so that if any party is not co-operating, then we can go to the next level. Mr. Speaker, Sir, lastly, in view of the current standoff, I think that we should also ask ourselves whether time has come for us to review certain aspects of the Public Finance Management Act and County Government Act. This is because I think that part of the problems that the MCAs are going through today have been caused by a skewed legal framework, which is heavily in support of the county executive at the expense of the county legislature. So, going forward, I want to promise the people of Kenya and my colleagues that I will be looking at possible amendments that we can bring before this House, so that the county assemblies can be made stronger, more visible and empowered, so that they can do their role of oversighting the county executive. This will ensure that devolution works. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with those many remarks, I beg to support this Motion."
}