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"content": "not understand why we have a Senate, what devolution is, whether it is the job of only a Governor to defend devolution or we have an overseer in the national Government – the Senator – who, in fact, does most of the work to ensure that the Governor is able to implement devolution. Therefore, when we talk of civic education, as a Senate, we would want to see the Governors also taking charge and making a register. This is because there is no register to show them even their map. Even when they are told that they have assets, they do not know where these assets are. Nobody has even told them: “You have natural resources, but remember within the Constitution, the national Government still holds onto them.” Therefore, you will find them having conflict with the national Government over those resources. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the national Government has even refused to inform Kenyans that sometimes when you go beyond some feet of your land, you are interfering with national land. Kenyans do not have that information. Even as we talk about counties, we need to establish information centres. I would want the Senators to be in charge of civic education. Since we sit three times a week, we can decide to have at least, a public forum every Friday in one of the counties. In that forum, we can talk about the Senate and money that has been devolved to the counties. We can even merge some counties into regions where once in a while the Senators go and give people information on what is happening at the national Government and county governments. As a country, we have really neglected civic education. We have left it to the civil society and we keep on complaining when the civil society goes on the ground and gives civic education based on what they believe in and the objectives of their programmes. You will find people complaining and questioning why the civil society has gone to their region. But in the end, we need to ask ourselves: “How will our people understand good governance?” It is only through civic education that we are able to entrench good governance and make people understand that we are not here to give money, but find ways of developing processes for them to move on. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, today, we are talking about the wage bill, but nobody is coming out to say that when the mheshimiwa goes back home, he or she is the bank for thousands of people. It is something that we also need to bring to the public and talk about it. When we talk about the wage bill, we must remember that every day, people walk to their Members of Parliament or Senators ask them for school fees, medical fees and many other social welfare challenges. How do we deal with that? The President needs to also start telling himself: “While I am talking about this, I know that there is this other challenge.” We are talking about the wage bill, but we are telling Kenyans that, indeed, it is in the Government where we have the highest wastage, where a biro pen can cost Kshs120 and photocopy paper Kshs800 per ream. When you look at the costing in Ministries you wonder. A serviette that normally costs 70, costs Kshs300 in the Ministries. When you ask, they tell you: “This is Government.” So, if the Government is crying because of the wage bill, what about the Kshs300 billion? How do you explain to a Kenyan that Kshs300 billion is wasted every year? Where does it go? What we are trying now to do is civic education to caution against people who are going to use the tender processes to corrupt the society. 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."
}