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{
    "id": 439018,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439018/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "They do not have proper infrastructure and Senators who sit in the Finance Committee have agonized over requests from Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki, Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki, Sen. Bule and others who are requesting that we make a provision within the Division of Revenue Bill so that conditional grants are set aside for them to have this particular infrastructural development. We attempted but that was shot down on the Floor of this House. So, if this Bill was passed, then we would approach the national Government and say that they should develop the necessary infrastructure in all the seats of county governments up to a level where it will look standard. If you allow this development of county headquarters to be done from devolved funds, they will never come to the same level. Tana River gets very little money and so does Nyandarua. So, if you expect them to put up this infrastructure, they will not manage. So, once we have put it into law, then we will approach the national Government and then it will put the proper infrastructure so as to sustain a proper functioning devolved government. Some Members of this House have had the opportunity to travel. Since we have made up our minds that we are going the devolution way, then we should make devolved governments to be actually governments. I will give you two examples. I have visited the Orange Free State in South Africa and the devolved Government of Ontario in Canada and the infrastructure which is in Ontario is far better than even the infrastructure of the national capital of Kenya. We have to give this consideration for long-term basis even if it means that the national Government in her Budget chooses to develop this headquarters for a period of even 10 or 15 years but deliberately so as to make it standardized. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the fifth reason why I think it is important is because the national Government must assist the county governments in developing the necessary infrastructure again for efficient transport network. The transport network in county headquarters has to be deliberate so that it can connect those county headquarters deliberately to all strategic corners of the rural areas within the county. Some of the counties, for example, the Kakamega County, have besides Kakamega Town Mumias Town, Malaba, Malinya, Butere and Shinyalu Town. The development of infrastructure in terms of transport should be such that the connectivity from Malinya Town, Shinyalu Town, Butere Town, Mumias Town, Malaba Town and Lugari Town should be deliberate so that there is ease of transport to those areas. The sixth advantage, if we pass this law, is that again, we shall force the national Government to develop the necessary infrastructure for deliberate development of commerce and industry. Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki has been so touched by this and has already proposed a draft Bill for purposes of developing industry. Now, if we leave that noble intention of developing commerce and industry in every county government to the little money that we gave devolved governments, industrial development and commerce will not grow at a desirable pace. So, we need to have this law so as to ensure that the national Government sets aside money for exactly that. Finally, what lessons do we learn from this? We learn from this that even the national Government has deliberately through the Urban and Cities Act in Section 6 identified Nairobi. It states in Section 6 (i) that the Capital City of Kenya is Nairobi. 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."
}