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"content": "gave me more votes, I will have to give them some of the slots” so that they will continue voting for him. We need a law such that it is not the pressure of the vote, but you need a law to guide that process so that everyone appreciates; when you are in that county, I do not need to think “why can I not go back to maybe where my father came from” maybe because I am married somewhere else. All those challenges are there. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we need to enhance staff capacity in counties. We, as a Senate, must assist counties in terms of capacity building for both the MCAs and staff. We should ask them where they are lacking so that we assist them. Today again, we have a petition from one of the counties who are looking at how the county assembly normally votes. They are saying: “If the Senators vote as per delegation, how come we cannot do the same?” But the spirit of the law was that if you are saying that you want to be all involved, then you have a right to vote. This is something that we also need to ask ourselves and also look at it not just from the way the Senate does its work, but in the spirit of inclusiveness. If you want to be involved, then you have the right to vote. This is something that we need to look at not only in the way the Senate does, but in the spirit of if we want the county assemblies to have growth and to show an example to the national Government. That is something that we need to discuss, dialogue and agree without disadvantaging those who are nominated in the counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the most challenging part in the whole process is that you find that in some counties, the number of nominated Members is nearly at par with those who were elected. Therefore, if you have to make a decision then you have to talk to the nominated Members to get what you want. That is where the elected Members feel a bit disadvantaged and we understand that. However, the nominated Members have a duty to ensure that whatever they pass is not because they have been compromised, but they do it for the sake of their counties. So, we are sending to our counties the message that it is always important to look at the interest of all your people. When you are nominated by a party, you look at the manifesto of that party. You agree on the growth of the party based on what they had agreed on regarding services to the people. If we find ourselves being compromised in the process, it will bring fear both at the counties and the national level. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other challenge we face is that we pass these laws here, but we have not fully implemented them. This is the culture we have inculcated in ourselves where we pass laws, but we do not follow them. It is good to follow the law. The governors will find it difficult to operate. I will not name the county, but there is a county that has been taken to court. They were summoned. They were supposed to ensure that during recruitment a disabled person is represented. Yes, the disabled person applied for the job, but in-between, they decided to use the county assembly to compromise the process. This person was not recruited. So, he went to court. The cohesion secretariat has taken upon itself to follow up why they did so. When the governor realized that it is becoming serious, he was ready to agree with the commission on this. He preferred to settle the matter out of court and promised to follow the process. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, governors must follow the law to the letter as they recruit. They must consider the gender, marginalized, minority and people living with disabilities as they recruit. By so doing, they will bring everybody on the board. When you want to recruit you must do so through an advert not only in the newspapers, but also"
}