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{
    "id": 439016,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439016/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "THAT, the County Governments (Amendment) (No.1) Bill (Senate Bill No.1 of 2014 be read a second time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Bill is a fairly short amendment Bill and I hope to take a very short time to attempt to convince the House. The reason why I would like the County Governments Act to be amended is because in the principle Bill, I would like to amend the County Governments Act No.17 of 2012 so as to insert in the Act a schedule which I have set out; the seat or physical location of each county government. The proposed new Third Schedule will therefore give the following advantages if this House passes this Bill. The first advantage is that the Third Schedule will then give certainty to the residents of our counties and other stakeholders on the physical location of the county governments and on where they can seek services offered by county governments. This might look a very simple matter but it is not so simple. For most of the Members of the National Assembly and Members of the County Assemblies, already there is a storm that has started in some of our counties. I wish to give just two examples. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in Kiambu County, this storm has started whereby as you will remember in the last Parliament, we were able to go around through the Ligale Commission and found out the thinking of the people on where they would have preferred the headquarters of the various county governments to be. This was then recommended by the Transition Authority (TA) and when they were settling the newly elected governments, the TA was taken to those areas that had been identified by people in those counties by the Ligale Commission. You will remember that the Ligale Commission was the Interim Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IIBEC). However, in Kiambu County, the Governor woke up one day and said that he does not like Kiambu Town. He said that he would rather that the seat of government goes to a place which he had better reasons for and it was actually moved from Kiambu to Thika. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my fear is that if we do not put this in law, what will happen is that now another Governor elected in Kiambu, when he does not come from Thika, probably he comes from Kiambu will now move it back from Thika to Kiambu or when another Governor is elected and he comes from Gatundu, he might choose to move it from Kiambu to Gatundu and so on and so forth. Since this exercise has got a cost, you will find that the funds for devolution that we take to Kiambu County will in perpetuity be used for development of infrastructure for the seat of government. A similar situation is obtaining in the County of Kirinyaga where there is a fight between Kutus Town and Kirinyaga. When I was doing a research on this, I went and made inquiries and in Kirinyaga, it is so dramatic that on one occasion, one section of leaders on a national day held a function in Kutus while another set of government officials held another function in Kirinyaga. It makes it important therefore that we clothe this provision in a firm law. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the fourth reason why I think that it is important to do this is because we have seen counties like Tharaka-Nithi and Nyandarua which are operating from makeshift structures. 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."
}