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"content": "Secondly, Mr. Speaker, Sir, it was a travesty of justice for those people who were nominated to go to the county assemblies almost three months after the county assemblies were inaugurated. I remember I went to my own county assembly to discuss with them this issue because they had left out all the nominated members of the county assembly from the committees. I said, really, these people are MCAs. There is no prefix or suffix in their names, MCAs, which says “MCA-N.” They are all MCAs. Therefore, they should be in those committees by virtue of being MCAs. That was then allowed. But there was also some reluctance on making some members of the MCAs chairpersons of committees. Again, this is a stigma which can stifle debates in the county assemblies. Some of this proportional representation in persons in these bodies are some of the most dynamic debaters. Quite often, you find that in competition to be nominated, we get even better quality MCAs. If we do not use those good qualities in committees or in the work of the assemblies, then we are really missing a big opportunity. We really misuse these people. You can see in this Senate our lady Senators who came in on proportional representation have done quite a good job. For example, we have Sen. Beatrice Elachi as the whip, God help her. Sen. Wangari here has mothered this very good Bill. So, the contribution of the people who come to the Senate or to the National Assembly or to county assemblies should not really be belittled. So, I think this Bill is very epochal; it is really going to help us solve a very big problem. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is something else which the Senate might pay attention to. I was surprised when reading the newspapers the other day and also when somebody came to my office again, telling me that she is an agent for a tour company which is specializing in arranging tours for counties and MCAs. I said, no; members of legislative bodies are usually invited by other governments to visit their countries on a purpose. If they are in committees, they may take these trips to go and benchmark on some activities or collect information which will be useful to their country. But I have never really known that it is in the practice of legislation or of making law that tour companies organize trips either for Members of National Assembly or for MCAs. Then I was told, as I was still wondering, that this lady had actually organized a trip for a certain county, which I will not mention, that they are already abroad. A whole county assembly has travelled to a certain country. I wonder what would happen if the whole Senate travelled to Burma or Myanmar. If the whole Senate travelled to Myanmar or to Jamaica, what would we really be doing there? What would we, as Senate, be studying in Jamaica? So, really this idea that tour companies are organizing trips for MCAs all over the nation. Touring other countries by MCAs is something that the Senate should pay attention to. I do not think it is normal. It is also tremendous misuse of resources. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was told that in some counties, they discriminate against nominated members. The plot thickens. So, there are more complications being introduced into this thing. I hope that when we are discussing with the Transition Authority (TA) about regulations that are necessary to regulate how we, in our work, can build counties, we can establish certain political cultures in these county assemblies that will lead to good governance. County assemblies must really lead in good governance; in as much as we too, in the Senate, must lead in good governance. If county assemblies are going to be oversight authorities on the executive, and they themselves engage in some"
}