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"content": "been faithful to the Constitution and to the principle of inclusiveness? We would come out with a very sorry balance sheet. But the governments that were elected are going to, first, serve for five years; so, we must then prepare for the next round of formation of governments in the counties. This makes me feel, therefore, that a body like the TA or any institution performing that role should be around for quite some time; charged with nothing other than making sure that these principles in the Constitution in the formation of county governments are done properly. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at the history of African States since Independence, almost every African country had a beautiful constitution at Independence. However, 10 years down the line, those constitutions are now a pale shadow of their former selves because they have been amended according to the interest of certain very specific elites in those countries. Now, we do not want this to happen to counties. Fortunately for the counties, we now have a Constitution and an institution like the Senate which must look after the implementation of this Constitution very carefully. Mr. Speaker, Sir, so, I am saying that if in the principle of inclusiveness, it includes these other things that county assemblies and county governments might look after, then we must have an institution like the TA, lasting much longer to ensure that this is done, of course, along with the Senate. That is why I said the other day that although there may be only a few Articles in the Constitution that refer to the Senate, but they are, perhaps, very important. This is one of the most important institutions in this Republic to ensure good governance and the implementation of this Constitution because we all live in counties. Counties take a big chunk of our attention politically and, thus, this Senate is a very important institution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like us, as a Senate, to do a balance sheet of how the counties are implementing the Constitution across the board because there are many things. That will mean how the counties are handling the responsibilities that they should handle under the Constitution, including all those functions that have been transferred to the counties Ministry by Ministry and institution by institution. We shall realize that counties still have a long way to go. The issues that the Council of Governors (CoGs) have so far focused on are some of the major ones; like how much money do we get? Where do the two or three most important functions of government go, for example, security, education and health? I have never heard a major debate amongst the CoGs on roads or infrastructure, which is another one, among other softer functions like fisheries, tourism and social welfare; which are very important for the day today issues in our lives. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the end, let me just commend Sen. Wangari for this amendment, which I am sure nobody in this Senate will oppose. I think it is well intentioned, well thought out and very timely. It opens our eyes to look at the County Governments Act even much broader to see whether there are other things that we may need to amend that will be important. One amendment which I hope Sen. Billow Kerrow, who is the Chairperson of the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs will think about is this. I am very disturbed that we, as a Senate, have very little to say on money Bills and yet counties cannot survive without money. I am told, although I am not convinced, that this is something that is common in all jurisdictions where we have the Senate. But there is no need or there is no reason we, as Kenyans, cannot be different. I hope that over time, our Committee will look into this, whether the other House will"
}