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"content": "development agenda. The Constitution is very clear that the development agenda is for the governor and his executive. They come up with their development agenda, put it before the county assembly and implement it for five years. If they do not succeed, you have a chance democratically to vote them out. That is the way it is in the Constitution. However, in my view, the separation of powers has not been undermined in this Bill because we are not actually engaging in executive decisions but we are merely providing a forum for policy input. That is the way I am looking at it. In that regard, therefore, we are not really going to undermine the work of the governor. We are simply giving an input in terms of policy, development and views to enrich their process of coming up with their development agenda. That is what is important. Now, does that erode our oversight authority? If we have this board, is it going to erode our oversight authority as the Senate? I think oversight means a process in which we address accountability. We look at expenditure, programmes and activities and address ourselves to the reasonableness of that activity, the costing, the financing, expenditures and so on. What this process simply does is to make that process of oversight real time instead of waiting and making it historical, that is, looking at it after five or six years. This is the situation today. The National Assembly is looking at public accounts for 2010/2011. What we are doing is providing oversight in real time. We will tell the county government what we think about various issues. The ultimate decision is theirs and we are not going to interfere in that regard. We are not going to interfere with their work. Their work is decision making. They are the ones to decide on the specifics. They are the ones to implement, spend and account for it. Our work is to provide consultations, recommend and advise them on what direction the county should take. Mr. Speaker, Sir, at this critical junction in transition, consultation is very essential. We are in a critical phase of devolution. County governments are finding many challenges because the national Government has made it difficult to actually built capacity. When they were supposed to build capacity, they did not do so, so there are challenges. There are also challenges about transfer of functions. We have been out recently to receive views of counties with regard to that. Due to these challenges, we think this is the most appropriate time for us to come aboard and try to guide these counties so that they can carry out those functions. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I speak today, money has been disbursed to counties. The third tranche of allocations were sent. The fourth tranche which is for November is supposed to go by next week. As per last week, the total amount of money that was being held by county governments was in excess of Kshs40 billion. This is the amount that has so far been released to the county governments. They are not spending the money yet because they are still recruiting, they are still drawing up their programmes and even for some of them, their budgets have not yet been approved. There are about a dozen counties whose budgets have yet to be revised and approved because of problems with MCAs not working. These hiccups are there and unless we come in and try to assist them, we will have challenges. Mr. Speaker, Sir, apart from the prioritisation that I mentioned earlier, there is a question of public participation. When we talk of public participation, the way it has been done, the modes that have been used are not suitable. When you simply call a few people in a market place, that is not public participation. In a matter like planning for a county or 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"
}