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{
    "id": 436817,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/436817/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 51,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 260,
        "legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
        "slug": "billow-kerrow"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to second the Bill. I want to state from the outset that this is a very important Bill to this House. If there is one responsibility that this House has to undertake in terms of money matters, this is the only one. The Constitution is very clear that we, as a Senate, do not deal with money Bills. But this particular Bill that deals with the division of revenue between the two levels of government is a responsibility that the Constitution has conferred on this House. We are very clear that last time, when this matter was interfered with, this House had to go to court; to get the court to clarify whether we have a mandate. This is the mandate that we need to exercise. Secondly, I want to clarify that we only have ten days from the time the message comes to this House from the National Assembly to conclude this Bill. This means that we have to conclude the debate on this Bill today and pass it on to the National Assembly. Mr. Deputy Speaker, in principle, devolution has started off very well. We know that all the 47 counties in this country today have their administrative structures in place, from the governor down to the county executives. All the institutions of administration are in place. We know that in the past one year, this House together with the National Assembly have allocated resources that have enabled the county governments to operate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the key mandates that we also have in this House which is not shared is the responsibility for the transfer of functions. As you are aware, quite a number of functions were transferred in August last year. Shortly afterwards, the county governments did appeal to the Senate for the transfer of the remaining functions. This House did that work. As far as I know, most of the functions have literally been transferred although the actual gazettement of some of the functions that we did is still pending. Why is the transfer of functions important? It is because that will advise the county governments what their responsibilities are on the ground. This will show what they need to do and the activities of service delivery that they ought to engage in. This is very important because it draws the line between the national Government and the county governments. We also appreciate that it is the transfer of functions which will assist the TA in determining the cost of those functions. I want to clarify this issue because it was raised earlier. In fact, they have been meeting in the last couple of days with other State organs to discuss that matter. Our Committee plans to bring together the relevant institutions, including the TA, to discuss this matter of costing. One of the reasons the TA has not been able to finalise, it is because the transfer of functions has not been concluded, for example, the issue of roads. We know that there are still discussions on the classification of roads. This House has a mandate to assist in determining how those classifications can be done so that the relevant Bills can be passed and we know which roads will be the 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."
}