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"id": 393540,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "hands were held because this is a matter in hands of the SRC. Surely, when I remember the work that we have done with the Deputy President, at least, as far as this Constitution is concerned, I wonder what changes when people go into office. It is not nice. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are not going to subject MCAs to the kind of disrespect that we show them today. It is true, as Sen. Kajwang has said, that members of the county executive earn very little. But when you compare that “little” with what the MCAs earn, then you just get confused. Who struggled more to convince, so as to be given an opportunity to serve? Was it an MCA or appointee of the county executive, who was, in fact, vetted by the MCAs? It beats me because I should be seeing a situation where either the members of the county executive are at par with the MCAs or the MCAs are getting more. The greater insult to these people is that we have structures that have been created under the county administration, where they are calling in some people called sub-county administrator, ward administrator and village administrator. The village administrator is in charge of several villages within a ward, and earns a basic salary of Kshs48,000, house allowance of Kshs20,000 and commuter allowance of Kshs8,000; all amounting to Kshs76,000. This person lives and works in that village. It is a shame. If you go to a massive county like Kakamega, I have an MCA from Khwisero, who has to take a motorbike paid for from Luanda Doho to Luanda Dudi. Once at Luanda Dudi, he takes another boda boda to go to Siaya. Once there, he takes another boda boda to go to Khumusalaba. Once in Khumusalaba, he takes another to go to Emalindi, from where he goes to Standi Kisa. From Standi Kisa, he takes another boda boda to Chavakali and from there, all the way to Kakamega. We are talking about a distance of over 100 kilometres. This person is being paid Kshs79,000. That is not the reason I subjected myself to public service. I did so, not because I was looking for employment, unlike many of you in here, but wanted to make a difference in governance. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, now, we want to allow a go-slow amongst MCAs and let the governors and their ten appointees to run affairs without oversight and pass policies and plans for development without interrogation from MCAs. We are failing. If we fail the county assemblies, the Senate also fails. If we fail the Senate, the county governments collapse. If the county governments collapse, it means that there is no devolution. The take-off we all looked forward to in our economy, will, therefore, not take place. I urge the President to rethink. This is because the Constitution does not allow us, even if we pass a resolution here that we do not like the SRC, or the Chair. The best that can happen is that this recommendation be taken to the President who will then appoint a tribunal. So, it is at his pleasure. I appeal to him to ensure that there is efficiency in the management of governance in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Sen. Otieno Kajwang and Sen. Kiraitu will remember when we were crafting the Constitution we were saying that, probably, we do not want 47 counties, because it would be too expensive to run them. Some suggested bigger units of 22 counties and others 18 counties. But we were pushed to the brim and told that this was doable. So, instead of losing Kshs300 billion through corruption, this money could very well be put to good governance by paying Senators, MCAs and members of the county executive well, so that in accordance with this Constitution, the Sarah Serem Commission The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}