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{
    "id": 393578,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/393578/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13119,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
        "slug": "agnes-zani"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, maybe what we have not done as the Senate is to quickly find a way of responding and showing that interconnectedness. Maybe what we need to do is to find structures, as the Senate, to be able to do that effectively. This is because it is true that MCAs have been stressed and discussed this. If governors can be stressed to the point of thinking about resigning, then what about the MCAs, who, probably, have few resources and are completely linked at the grassroots level? I remember some of the MCAs in seminars whose cars, for example, are now used as ambulances in their counties. They are completely at the mercy of their electorate and their money has to be given for anything and everything in the county. There is absolutely nothing that they can do in terms of their helplessness and even the capacity to deal with the demands from their electorate. So, the expectations from the grassroots level and electorate are very high. I think that they are reaching out to everybody and anybody, right from the MCAs, Senators and governors. Maybe Senators and governors are a little bit distant. So, it is not very easy to get to them directly. But I am sure and I have heard also Senators and governors saying they have had their share of being queried about this and that, and being asked for this and that. A sum of Kshs79,000 is not enough. If we double it, it may not be enough and even if we were triple it, it might not be enough. If we are trying to attract the sort of professionals who we ought to think about attracting back to the grassroots level, then we have to think about the remuneration package that will enable us to distill back into the counties the skills. Many professionals will not leave their professions and become the MCAs with such remuneration. Therefore, we are losing out on skills, ideas, motivation and people who, probably, have such low morale and low levels of self-esteem and yet so much is expected of them. So, it is just putting too much on everybody. We need to watch over each other as the specific bodies in charge of devolution right across so that we are actually watching each other’s back. What is happening in the Senate? What is happening to the governors? We cannot just afford to delink, so-to-speak. If we do so, we are going to have a culture of corruption being devolved back again into the counties. I think that is exactly what we are avoiding and that has been alluded to earlier."
}