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{
    "id": 447570,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/447570/?format=api",
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    "content": "gotten Kshs12 billion of that money. However, that has not been done because the roads sector is not conforming to the new Constitution. Therefore, we, as counties’ defenders, are actually not being fair. We need to push for this sector also to be realigned with the new Constitution, so that we can get the fuel levy share of the county governments. The current situation is not favouring the county governments because even the 32 per cent under rural roads, which goes to the county, we still have not merged it with the county government structure. The KeRRA still has its own structures in the county government. However, the Governor and his County Executive Committee (CEC) still will not be having any role. It is still the Member of Parliament (MP) with his Constituency Roads Committee which comes from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). This committee used to have four members from the CDF. The Finance Act of 2009 clearly says that those four members will actually produce the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson respectively. So, still, the county government has no say even on the 32 per cent which goes to rural roads, because that is an extension of the national Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to urge the CEC members in charge of the roads sector to ensure that they move with speed to make sure that the roads sector is realigned to the new Constitution. I know that there have been drafts from as early as September, 2013, which were coming up with proposals putting all the roads under a national Government body and then all that is within the counties is left to the county governments. The funds for roads should be shared between the two; that is, the national and county governments. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion is urging us now to focus on the county governments. They have moved to build county government headquarters. Most of these county government headquarters are former district headquarters. We have discussed Motions here asking the national Government to set aside funds for the establishment of county headquarters for some governments. This means the infrastructure is not there, in the first place. They need to put up buildings which will accommodate their headquarters. If we look at the roads infrastructure, it is even worse. Now, for those county government headquarters to move to a level where it is a representative headquarters, the roads infrastructure also needs to be improved. We have urban roads under a particular authority and it receives a substantial amount of money, say, over Kshs3 billion. It is only fair that before the realignment of the roads sector to the new Constitution, the building or the improvement of infrastructure in the county headquarters must be done in an equitable manner that ensures that KURA assigns that responsibility of improving the infrastructure in all the county headquarters. This is a stopgap measure. Otherwise, the real scenario should have been that the funding for road maintenance in the counties under the national Government trunk roads should be done by the county governments. But as we know very well, they can only do that if the funding follows the function. Now, we are in a situation where even the function has not been released properly because rural roads are still being handled by the KERRA while KURA is still handling what should be county roads. So, as a stopgap measure, it is necessary that some of those funds which are supposed to have gone to the county governments and which are still going to the authorities be applied for the priorities of the county governments. This is 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."
}