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{
    "id": 404472,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/404472/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 30,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 260,
        "legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
        "slug": "billow-kerrow"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Bill. The subject of devolution is a very important one to many of us in this country. What we have seen in the last couple of days on the report that has been published about the level of inequalities in this country is astounding. I think we have all seen the report that was launched this morning but which had been published in some of the papers in the last couple of days. The report reveals a very grim picture of the society that we live in. In this country, there are people who can spend Kshs1,000 or Kshs1,200 per month and there are others who can spend Kshs200,000 per month and yet this is the same nation and country. I will come to the reasons why I think there are serious problems. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not think that this is the intention of this Bill. I was one of the people who were very skeptical about this Bill because I had the feeling that this is an attempt to try and push some executive work to us and some of us were not ready to manage cattle dips and other things in the counties. After listening to my colleagues the other day, I was convinced that this Bill does not infringe on the constitutional mandate of the counties and I do not think it is the intention of the Bill to usurp the powers of the governors. In my understanding, this Bill is simply a leadership forum. In fact, it is not governmental. It is not a national or county government meeting. It is a leadership forum for the leadership of the county to meet, design, exchange views and plan for their county. Therefore, it is a process of consultation. Why do we need this consultation? One of the main reasons why we need consultation is to enrich the process of prioritisation of development in the county. That is the single biggest problem we have seen when the budgets were done early this year. Indeed, there was no significant attention paid to selection of priorities by the county governments. This forum will provide an opportunity for devolved funds to be spent in a way in which they are prioritised and, therefore, will foster a unity of purpose and provide a strategic direction for the county. We have seen counties that have launched their strategic directions. They have a strategic direction showing where they want to go. There are counties where things are still confused. We have visited counties and we have seen budgets where budgets look like the old Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) thing. It is divided by the number of county wards and every ward gets Kshs50 million, then they create 50 projects of Kshs100,000, Kshs500,000 or Kshs800,000. We have seen this in a number of counties and this is unfortunate because that is not the intention of the development. That is not the way people in those counties will develop. Therefore, it is important for us to have this forum so that we can have a strategic direction for the counties. 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"
}