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{
    "id": 404111,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404111/?format=api",
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    "content": "want to thank the Committee for being very thorough and considering to sit down and talk to the relevant people. I remember when the Constitution was promulgated in 2010, Sen. Obure and I, immediately embarked on interpreting what the then Ministry of Public Works was supposed to do. What we found out was that because of devolution, there was going to be need for county assemblies to be put in place. The county assemblies are a replica of the Parliament that we have. We were given money by Treasury. The moment we started advertising that is when we saw the CIC saying that we could not build county assemblies until the Governors and the Speakers were in place. The whole process collapsed and nothing was done. I am saying this because it is important that we take views of all the relevant bodies and organizations although sometimes there are things that we must just do when we think it is right. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, looking at the proposals; these are not excessively strange proposals the way it has been put in the Bill. Every organization that we know in this world has a board starting with nursery schools, primary schools and secondary schools. They have parents’ associations where there is a chairman. Today, we have 247 parastatals in Kenya. I am told they are going to be reduced to almost 180. In all of them, there exists a board. That board is not executive. There are very few that are executive. The boards advise and bring all the top processes. In the universities, for example, the University Council has on board people with rich backgrounds on their boards. They advise the Vice Chancellor. The office of the Vice Chancellor offers secretariat services. It defeats logic and makes me wonder whether we really know what we are saying when we walk around and hear people say that the Governor has suddenly been reduced to a secretary, an equivalent to a typist. We now need to consolidate our leadership to think through and find out the reason for us to go into devolution. We found that for 50 years we could not run Kenya from Nairobi at all with one executive. So, it was essential then that we go into 47 small units. We should now go and practice what we are seeing. I do not know whether any of you have had the privilege of visiting the Governors’ offices. You would see many human beings queuing to see the Governor. Some think that Governors have money to give them and so on. Some of them may think that they have a lot of power when people are lining up to see them in their offices. You are contained there until you cannot come out. We have never seen people queuing at Harambee House or State House, but the opposite is happening at the offices of the Governors. We have created problems where I am told that there are some offices of Governors that have been attacked at night. Thieves are breaking into their offices thinking there is money in their lockers because of the impression they have given to wananchi. We have forgotten that there existed districts. There was a time the first and the second Presidents of the Republic of Kenya talked about District Development Committees (DDCs), which were chaired by the District Commissioner (DCs). This was prior to 1992. They used to chair these committees in what today are the counties. The DDCs would often meet to synchronize development projects in their areas from the little money they got from the central Government. 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"
}