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"content": "is in place to deliver on the transfer of functions through the transition period of three years. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when we transfer these functions, I think that we have to make sure that they are based on requests. We have to ensure that the counties actually have the capacity, because I believe that you give somebody what he can do better than whoever was doing it before. You do not take it away from the national Government when the county government will not deliver the service in a better manner. For example, in the education sector, right now as it is, the county is only dealing with the Early Childhood Development (ECD) education and the polytechnics. But as it has been raised, the issue of infrastructure and equipping of primary and secondary school needs to be addressed by the county governments, especially from the marginalized areas where these facilities have not been there and now we have the opportunity of constructing these facilities ourselves and equipping them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the ECD education, there is an issue which is contentious, that is, engagement of teachers. We know that teaching is about having some particular standards and that is why the teachers in secondary and primary schools are under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). So, we have to look at who should handle the ECDs because that is where the foundation is laid. If the counties have their own standards, then it is difficult to translate that to primary schools. So, I think that the issue of teachers’ employment, training and remuneration should be left to the TSC at all levels, so that we can have some maintenance of standards. Mr. Speaker, Sir, rural electrification is an issue which needs to be devolved also, because we have had cases of power stations which were constructed by the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) for the last four or so years and have not been commissioned. Because of thinking centrally, you have to commission them and at the same time, buy the equipment. So, some areas have stations which have been there for the last four years without operating. So, it would be better if this kind of function is devolved. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the case of roads, I think that we need to move quickly in terms of the legislation, because there is need to have a better definition of county roads. Right now we have cases where a county has about Kshs2 billion or Kshs1 billion for roads, but still those roads are said to be under the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KURRA), which gives at most Kshs30 million per constituency. It would be better if the roads are devolved and also the funding and the technical staff. This is because right now counties are trying to employ technical staff to handle large amounts of monies, while we have staff who are idle at the counties, because what they are getting is not enough to maintain any road. This is because a county is maybe allocating Kshs30 million for a whole constituency. So, it would be better if these functions are devolved and done where they can be sourced properly. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is also the issue of legislation. I think that as the Senate, we need to streamline many of these legislations. The Report mentions several 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."
}