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{
    "id": 404124,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404124/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
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    "content": "start looking at both Governor Mutua and Sen. Muthama in a manner to suggest that they are competing for space, which is not the case. Yet, ideally, I am aware that there is no conflict in terms of the actual development of the city itself. Therefore, some of these issues which came out in the public from various counties would have been addressed if we had expedited this particular Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is in the public domain even today that only about 22 to 24 counties have balanced budgets. It is also in the public domain that as a result of these counties not balancing their budgets, they have only received the money for the month of August. Senators are not aware of all these developments, and if this Board was in place, we would be aware and we would offer leadership and possibly some experience in it. It is extremely sad because this came out to play; as Senators are aware, at a sitting of a public hearing we had in Nairobi on county proposals on transfer of functions, we ended up with an exchange between the Governor and the Senator. Why did they have this exchange? The Governor had relayed some information that the Senator was not aware of, and then he asked the question; “When did you call me for a meeting? Why do you not pick up my calls?” et cetera. Why would we allow these elected leaders to come to a forum, like the one we had in the public, and display what I call “washing dirty linen in public”, yet ideally the law has provided a formula for sitting down and discussing these issues so that then, the public, who had elected both the Governor and the Senator, were not treated to a charade and camaraderie of many things that are not helping development at home? So, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in supporting this amendment Bill, the devolution aspect of this Constitution – and you were at the heart of devolution in terms of amendments, drafting legislation, et cetera - there is no single component other than the Bill of Rights that is as important as devolution. Sometimes you wonder whether or not we should celebrate 50 years of Independence. In fact, I can say this with authority; that it is possible that Makueni County has not received the Kshs5 billion that it was to receive this financial year because of devolution. There are some places in this country that do not have any basic services. So, I am standing here to say that devolution in this country is going to lead to what I call a revolution; that revolution where you change the lives of people for years to come. Therefore, the formula that we are adopting here through some of these things and in this amendment is for purposes of ensuring that we all synchronize and work together. Under Section 107 of the County Governments Act, the Governor and the county governments are supposed to come up not only with the CIDP that we have all mentioned, but they are supposed to come up with a spatial plan; they are supposed to come up with a plan on urban cities and many others. Why would these people be planning all these things while excluding members of the Senate, who have been elected? Why would we allow them to run counties in such a manner to the extent that we are then excluded from these sorts of things, and yet we have an interest? There is a reason why counties are having problems with budgets, and I want to say so without fear or favour. Governors are people who are elected and have an interest in budgets because they want 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"
}