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{
    "id": 450421,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/450421/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 32,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Therefore, in terms of the composition, when we sat down, we looked at the composition of the County Development Board. In the original Bill, we had provided for nominated Members of the Senate and the National Assembly to be part and parcel of the Board, but an issue was raised and we discussed. We know that Nominated Senators and Nominated Members of the National Assembly are nominated to represent specific national interests yet the issues that are going to be discussed in the County Development Boards are local issues. If a Senator is nominated to represent the youth, for example, and that Senator comes from Kisii County or Kakamega County, if he or she sits in the Board of their respective county, that gives that county undue advantage over other counties where issues of youth must be addressed across the nation. Therefore, it will be unfortunate to pick a Nominated Senator to represent a national constituency and confine them to deliberate on very local issues at the county level. I beg the Nominated Members of the Senate and the National Assembly to appreciate that our intention was not to lock out any Member from being part and parcel of the deliberations at the county level. We recognise their constitutional constituency which is a national constituency. Therefore, we are not locking out anybody. I hope that the Members will be able to appreciate that, so that we understand where we are coming from. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue that had created a lot of contention was on who should be the secretary to the Board. Initially, this House had considered the conventional wisdom whereby the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of any institution or organization is always the secretary of an advisory board within that institution. That conventional wisdom was faulted by the governors and we agreed and acceded to their request that we have the County Secretary who will provide the services as the secretary to the Board. In the new draft, we also agreed that the governors would be the Vice Chairs of the Boards. Those are the issues that are different from what was contained in the earlier version of the Bill that was passed by this House. This is the first Bill that has gone through the entire constitutional procedure and provisions in terms of handling Bills. I wish the Senate and the National Assembly would carry out their businesses in the manner we have carried out our business with regard to this Bill. This is where you, Mr. Speaker, and the Speaker of the National Assembly sat down and agreed that this is a Bill affecting counties. That was unanimously agreed on. The Bill was tabled in the Senate, deliberations were undertaken and the Bill was finally passed and forwarded to the National Assembly for their concurrence. When the National Assembly had issues with the Bill, they raised their concerns, rejected the Bill as provided for by the Constitution and we subjected the Bill to a mediation process. The National Assembly nominated three Members. Likewise, the Senate nominated three Members. I was fortunate to be part of the mediation team from the Senate. We sat down, addressed the issues, looked at the concerns raised by Members of the National Assembly, the issues and intentions of the Senate in passing the Bill and came down to an agreeable version of the County Governments (Amendment) (No.2) Bill. 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."
}