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{
    "id": 404032,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404032/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 907,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Kipyego Sang",
        "slug": "stephen-kipyego-sang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that The County Governments (Amendment) (No.2) Bill, Senate Bill No.4 of 2013, be now read a Second Time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a Bill to amend the County Governments Act of 2013. The Bill seeks to amend the County Governments Act to provide for a platform for the county governments and national Government to engage at the county level. If you look at the Constitution, the role of the Senate, as captured under Article 96, provides that the Senate represents the counties and their governments and to protect the interest of counties and their governments. The second constitutional responsibility given to the Senate is the lawmaking process. The final one is to determine allocation of national revenue among counties and oversight the same. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have been discussing in this House the structures available for the Senate and Members of this House to carry out their constitutional responsibilities under the new Constitution. Therefore, the amendment Bill that I am proposing seeks to provide that platform. I, therefore, wish to look at the highlights of the Bill. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to appreciate the indulgence that you have given to the Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, in terms of allowing him to table the Report. As a Committee, we have looked at this Bill and carried out a lot of public participation on it. We have also received a lot of valuable contributions from the various stakeholders. When this Bill was first published, we had a lot of serious resistance from various stakeholders. One of the issues that were raised was the fact that we had not carried out public consultations. I want to single out two institutions that raised some of these issues. One of them was the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC). We invited them as the first stakeholder and they made their presentations. We had discussions with them and allayed some of the fears that they had. We eventually settled on a more agreeable version of the Bill, which we will amend as we move on. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Bill seeks to provide this Senate with a platform to carry out its constitutional responsibilities. It is important to note that you cannot expect the Senate to protect the interests of the counties and their governments when they have no idea what goes on within those governments. You cannot expect me, as the Senator for Nandi, for example, to contribute effectively to the County Allocation of Revenue Bill or the Division of Revenue Bill when I have no idea of the needs of my county. We are seated 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"
}