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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, having said that, this week I was reading a book - because I have made a point of picking one book per week to read, without really restricting myself. Unfortunately for me this week, I picked a biology book and it was talking about body parts. It was a bit boring for me at the beginning because I am not a scientist, but since I had promised myself that I have to finish one book a week, towards the end, I realized that it was very interesting. It was talking about the human anatomy and how all the body parts are related. I realized that we have one heart, one head, many body parts, but if one part of your body, even if it is the smallest of your fingers, is hurting or wounded, it can lead to your death. This is because the pain will cause you a lot of stress and depression. If you overlook it, you might die from just extreme pain or depression. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Governors and county governments must realize that they cannot operate in isolation. Whether he is the head, tail, chest or whatever part they want to refer to themselves as, all of us collectively, that is, Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), Members of Parliament, Senators, Governors, Executive and even the general public, must understand the vision for that county, interrogate every process, be part of it and own it for success. First of all, our responsibility as Senators is that of oversight. In my opinion, you cannot oversight that which you do not understand. You must understand what you are oversighting. We must ask ourselves: How did we end up with this budget? What are the priorities? Why did we decide that we are constructing this road and not a hospital first? We must understand how much we have allocated per county, per ward and per project even before we oversight. So, we must be part of the process. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, our other responsibility is even resource mobilization. As a Senator, how will you take your time to go to other countries, to represent your county and source for funds? By and large, it means that if this process is allowed to blossom the way it is going, we will end up with Senators who are so detached from their counties that they really do not care. Come the next budgetary allocation from the national Government and your county is given Kshs2 billion as opposed to Kshs10 billion, you will not stand here to defend it. Do they really know what they are talking about? You cannot fight the person who has the absolute responsibility to defend you. It is like going to see a doctor and then you start fighting with him. If you do not want to allow your doctor to understand exactly what you are ailing from, how will he help you? He cannot prescribe the right medication for you. Likewise, you cannot fight with your lawyer if he is going to represent you in a case. You have to be absolutely thorough and open to your lawyer, for him to represent you adequately. So, we are representing the Governors and their teams – the county governments. For them to even think that they can work in isolation is a big mistake on their part. They are doing a lot of injustice not just to themselves, but to the people of their counties. We must be involved. We have a responsibility, not just to the governor; not just to the county government, but to the electorate. The same people who voted and elected the governor also voted for the Senator; and the Senator, in his own mind, having all the choices before him, chose to vie for Senator and not for governorship. That does not mean that he would not become a governor if he wanted. The fact that he even chose to be a Senator means that he knew that there was going to be a governor with whom they 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"
}