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{
    "id": 423861,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/423861/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
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    "content": "certain public officials, including Governors. I think it is important that the Senate asserts its authority with respect to oversight, through this Committee. Mr. Speaker, Sir, more importantly, this Committee will largely facilitate the formation of a board that this Senate has already approved, that is, the County Development Board, which I do believe will work hand in hand with this Committee in terms of the exercise of some of those mandates of oversight with respect to the finances that will be given to counties. If we fail in this particular responsibility, I am quite concerned of the growing disillusionment by the Kenyan people with respect to devolution. Therefore, there can only be one guardian angel towards devolution, as the Supreme Court has asserted. That guardian angel is this House of Senate, in particular, to curb the wastage that we have witnessed since the inception of county governments, with respect to spending of public resources. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to share the sentiments of Sen. Ndiema. He and I spent a couple of days in the United States and were able to see how the State Senate and the Federal Senate work. Senators should be capacitated to perform the functions of their offices, so that they can be able to facilitate meetings and citizen participation frameworks or forums to enable effective representation and other businesses that the Senator will from time to time be able to, at his or her discretion decide. We are greatly at a loss in terms of realizing the respective capacity and impact that every Senator can have. Comparatively, the Governor has an entire government and appoints people every other day. He has a cabinet and a budget. Then Members of the National Assembly preside over as patrons to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and other development funds that have been allocated to constituencies. The Senator has only one bodyguard and a small and thin structure which is almost similar to that of a constituency office. Therefore, on account of that, Senators are unable to meet their expectations. We are in a political process as any other politician and if our capacity is not strengthened, I can reasonably forecast that the Twelfth Parliament might have very few of us who are in the Eleventh Parliament. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are constantly in political competition and Kenyans out there have yet to comprehend the roles and mandates of Senators. We are expected to perform roles like any other Member of Parliament and sometimes even relative to the functions that are performed by the Governor. As I walk through the streets of Mombasa, people ask me why the drainage is not working and the roads are not patched and so on. Therefore, the Senate should assert itself, not only in terms of its practice of business in the House, but also through the conduct if Senators when they are out of the House and in their respective counties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do know that there have been various proposals including how to split a very big service Commission; to handle the mandate of the Senate and the mandate of the National Assembly. I think that in due course this needs to be asserted. Therefore, as we move further on, I think that time is running out. We have now three years for this Senate to prove its worth and functions no matter how few they appear within the Constitution. This is vital and fundamental to the enactment of the new structure of governance that envisages both the national and county government structure. Therefore, all these Committees that have been created must now work towards 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."
}