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{
    "id": 421607,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/421607/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "people. That is why if we do not carry out civic education, Kenyans will allow corruption at the county government to take root. We will go back 20 years down the line. We will start having commissions of inquiry to find out why Elgeyo-Marakwet County did not develop or why Kakamega County has not developed after 20 years. This will be because we did not put the systems in place from the word go, that would ensure that accountability is the bedrock of our county governments. Civic education will solve this problem. I have heard some people, including Governors, saying that because the Senate is being bothersome, they have to do away with the Senate. There is not a worse statement of ignorance and gullibility than that. If you want to scrap the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, then you must scrap the entity known as the county governments represented by this House. If you scrap the county government, you will have scraped the Governor. If you scrap the Governor, you will have scrapped the MCAs. I want to tell Governors and MCAs out there who are gullible enough to talk about the scrapping of Senate that they will not scrap the Upper House without scrapping themselves. That is the civic education we need to carry out. There are serious issues of corruption at the county level. I have established, including my own county – I was quoted with regard to what I said on Sunday in my county – one of the things that we realized about Embu County was the fact that once the Governor came into office, he chased the Deputy Governor one kilometer away and brought the County Secretary close to himself, and brokers and cartels started taking hostage of the county Government. That is not in Embu alone; it is the same in Elgeyo- Marakwet. I am sure it is the same situation in Kakamega, Kajiado and Nairobi counties. There are new groups of cartels that have left Nairobi to go to the local level to take our local governments captive. If we want to salvage our counties from the frontiers of corruption, then we must ensure that our people are educated enough so that when someone goes to the county headquarters, he will have the courage to say that he wants to pass through the county government offices and to find out what they have done with regard to many issues. This is the Government of the people. It is not a Government that is there to benefit individuals. Devolution is not just about counties. It is about the national Government level. Article 174 tells you that through devolution, services from the national level should be taken to the lowest level. We expect the police to tell us how far they have gone in devolving police services. We expect Commissions like the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to tell us how far they have gone in devolving KACC services. We expect national Government offices to conform to Article 174 and ensure that devolution is not about the counties but about how national entities can take services to the local level. The discussion now in the Government is about lowering the wage bill. Many people have talked about cutting salaries. I am on record saying that what I donate to the people of Elgeyo-Marakwet County in terms of supporting projects, whether you call it harambees or whatever you call, it is more than what I earn in this House every month. So, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when it comes to giving whatever we want to give back, we can give but there is the bigger question; the County Governments Act tells the county governments that once they come into place, they must find out how many 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."
}