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{
    "id": 453841,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/453841/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 333,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. Actually, I had wanted to contribute to this Bill from yesterday, but because we are 349 hon. Members, I have been patiently waiting for my time which has finally come. First of all, I want to start by saying that I was looking at the functions and the role of the Senate. Our Constitution provides for the role of Senate, hon. Members of Parliament and the governors. Each office has a distinct role to play in the Republic of Kenya. My concern is that, in this country it appears that wherever we have issues, instead of looking for ways of solving them, we think we can go back to where we came from. I want to remind this House that one of the reasons why we made amendments to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) was to remove hon. Members from chairing the CDF. We realized and appreciated the fact that as an hon. Member you are a legislator, you are supposed to oversee. You are not supposed to be directly involved in implementation. Hon. Speaker, if you look at the current CDF Act, you will see that contrary to public perception, hon. Members are not involved in CDF management. Actually, as a matter of fact, it is even wrong to attend CDF meetings. This is because the hon. Member is not supposed to make a decision. If we did that, we appreciated the separation of power. We appreciated that hon. Members, including Senators, are not supposed to chair forums or meetings which directly allocate funds. Then that would mean we are involved in legislation. Hon. Speaker, here comes the Senators, people we thought were going to take care of the interests of counties and take an upper role in impeaching the President, now they want us to get involved in the day-to-day running of the activities in the county.We will get it wrong. Senators are supposed to represent the counties and serve to protect the interests of the counties and their governments. The Senate should participate in law making; debating and considering Bills that concern counties.They are supposed to help in allocation of national revenue among counties as provided in Article 217 of the Constitution. I think the Supreme Court has given them something that I have checked in this Constitution and I have not found. Even allocating resources between National and county governments, they are supposed to be involved.Once they do that, the other thing they are required to do is to exercise oversight over national revenue allocated to the county government.Finally, they impeach State officers. Hon. Speaker, I do not see why the Senate feels that it is only them who can chair committees in the counties and allocate funds and then counties will run. The people of Kenya elected governors. If these governors are not performing, there is an election 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."
}