Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 404375,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404375/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 219,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "two weeks which will ensure that every county has a county radio. If we do not have a county radio, nobody will know what the Member of the County Assembly is doing. There should at least be reports as to what they are debating in the county assembly. Madam Temporary Speaker, this forum that brings all of them together will be very useful in terms of exchanging information. Secondly, this County Development Board as proposed by Sen. Sang is going to give an opportunity for peer review which is a very important concept. It is important for leaders to challenge each other and to ask themselves what they have done. It is good for the Member of the National Assembly to have a forum to say he has, for example, done two or three Bills and even ask the Senator to think of coming up with two or three Bills for the benefit of their county. It is important for Members of the National Assembly to go and tell the Members of the County Assembly not to only debate Motions but come up with County Bills so that leaders are able to challenge each other. Peer review is a very important concept and that is why the African Union (AU) came up with NEPAD. It was the President of Namibia at that time who called it “knee pad”. This is a new partnership that has a very important concept of peer review where leaders come and sit together and challenge each other about the issues and the things they are doing on behalf of and for their people. There is misconception about this Board. People read that section that Sen. Sang has come up with and read it as County Government Board whereas it is the County Development Board. It is dormained at the county level but it does not mean that it is serving the County Government alone. To the contrary, it is an opportunity for every person to be able to account to each other as leaders. There have been a lot of debates; people have said that they do not want Senators to sit with them at the county level, but when I made inquiries as to why some of these counties are uncomfortable with the Senators sitting with them, I have been told that in some counties, the Governors fear the Senator hanging around the county and Members of the National Assembly being able to know what is happening at the county because in some counties, the Senators are seasoned politicians who know matters about accountability like Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale who is known to have chaired the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). I have been reliably informed that some of our Governors fear us because of social auditing; the basic audit of what they are doing at the county level. Madam Temporary Speaker, in one county, you will be told that a building has cost Kshs10 million and a similar building in an adjacent county has cost Kshs60 million. That kind of disparity and the fact that leaders are not supposed to know these issues raises this fear. I can look at a building and cost it. They do not want us to deal with issues of corruption which is our oversight function. We should not wait just to do a postmortem; the kind of oversight that we do two years down the line while reading the Auditor-General’s report. That kind of oversight that waits for the Auditor-General’s report to do a postmortem is not useful to the mwananchi at the local level. The best auditing is the one where we are together, exercising our oversight role immediately so that we can avert a situation where resources at the local level are going to be misused. I know one thing; that the people at the local level will say that if the Governor fails, all the leaders have failed. When we go to the next elections, the people of Elgeyo-Marakwet will be at pains 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"
}