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{
    "id": 404103,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404103/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 325,
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    "content": "not the right thing to do and they should go home. The two honourable Members of Parliament from my county, who are part of this terrible decision, during this forum, I will sit them down and tell them that Butali Sugar Company will not stop crushing cane. If they stop crushing cane, we will take back Kakamega to where it was before we brought in Butali. That was when cane stayed in the farms for four years. However, today, cane farmers are paid. Every Thursday, we pay between Kshs60 million and Kshs100 million. Why would you want to close that kind of enterprise? However, because of lack of such a forum, Members of Parliament, probably because of inexperience get away with this. The same applies to Mumias Sugar Company, West Sugar Company, the upcoming Busia Sugar Company and Nzoia Sugar Company in Bungoma. We want the Governor to understand the devolved functions. Today, we are seeing Governors, not just in Kakamega, but also in Nyeri and elsewhere, putting Kshs5 million in secondary schools. The Constitution has not devolved that function to counties. Therefore, all we are doing by not being proactive is to allow our Governors to walk into jail with their eyes wide open. That is a straight audit query. You do not have to argue very much about it and all that you need is a report of Edward Ouko, the Auditor General, and they will be fixed. If Governors want to focus on education, they are free to focus on polytechnics. As we debated yesterday, we all agreed that we need to strengthen our polytechnics. We will realise further development by way of emphasis on science research and technology. Before I conclude, I want to comment on something that is very important in the Bill. This is Clause 2. In Clause 2, the establishment of the County Development Boards through 111(a) and (1)(g) gives a proposal to have the Deputy Governor of the County and (h) to have the Speaker of the County Assembly. I think we are beginning to lose focus. If the Governor is seated in the Committee, why would the Deputy Governor sit there? Secondly, what role would the Speaker of the County Assembly be playing in the Committee? He is supposed to sit in the county assembly and make sure that there is order during county debates. He will not go to the assembly and say what happened when he attended the meetings because he will never have that opportunity. Why waste state resources by inviting him to come and sit in this committee? In the Committee Stage, I will be proposing that we delete the Deputy Governor and the County Assembly Speaker. I want to persuade the speaker who spoke before me, the Senate Minority Leader, although he will be in that position for a short time considering that Sen. Wetangula is coming back, to bear with the County Assembly Leader of Majority and County Assembly Minority Leader because, in my view, this position is very important. This is captured very well in the presentation by Sen. Murungi when he appeared before you. We need to establish similar structures all the way down to the grassroots level. Therefore, MCAs will be chairing those boards in their wards and they should have representation in the county boards. Just because of a desire not to bloat the county board too much, probably that is why we did not want the MCAs to be there. They should be represented by the County Majority Leaders and County Minority Leaders; that would be good. 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"
}