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"speaker_name": "Hon. Limo",
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"legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
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"content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important debate on the Speech by our President. First, I wish to congratulate the President for obeying the Constitution by appearing in this House and addressing the nation. I also thank the President for thanking - you know it is always good to appreciate what people have done - this House. The whole membership of this House was thanked for supporting the Government for the last one year. I think that is very important. Hon. Deputy Speaker, one notable and very clear achievement of this Government is on the side of devolution. Devolution has been handled in this country in a way that many people could not believe. The Government has transferred all the functions of the national Government to the counties within the first year. The drafters of the Constitution had actually indicated that the functions could be transferred in phases over a period of three years. If you look at the counties, all the functions as stipulated in the Constitution have already been transferred. We are talking about the counties being able to perform functions they have been given efficiently as indicated in the Constitution. Fifteen per cent is the minimum and the Jubilee Government managed to give 32 per cent. It is actually important that we appreciate what the Government has done and we play our oversight role to ensure that this money works for the people. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we want also to support what the Leader of Majority Party mentioned, that we need to empower the Members of County Assemblies (MCA); our counterparts in the counties on the oversight role. If people are not empowered, they will be vulnerable to misuse and being compromised. Therefore, we need to empower them. It is a pity that the current crop of members who are doing oversight in our counties are actually earning less than 20 per cent of what the executive officers are earning in those counties. We need to really defend our colleagues down there so that devolution can succeed. But our worry is when devolution is politicized and the President was very clear when he said it should not be politicized. The President clearly indicated that he is going to defend devolution and, therefore, no one in this country should doubt the commitment from the President. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}