Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 453842,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/453842/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 334,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "waiting for them. By the way, even before election time, you can do what Kenyans call “to Wambora them”through an impeachment. Why can the Senate not utilize those avenues as provided in the Constitution? Why do the Senators want to chair development activities at the county level yet they are supposed to play oversight role? They are required to receive reports on the expenditure at the national level. Hon. Speaker, I have heard my colleagues talk about duplication of projects. Sure, that is not a good thing. But it is because we have refused to accept that there are functions which were devolved to the counties and some remained at the national level. What on earth would make a Member of Parliamentallocate CDF funds to do a county function to an extent that you do the same project as the county government. Why should county governments, for example, allocate money to primary schools or secondary schools to build classrooms when it is clearly spelt out in the Constitution that, that is the function of the National Government? We can eliminate some of these duplications. We should read the Constitution and understand it and carry out functions as provided in it. I do not think there are answers in sitting every quite often to debate on which projects should be taken by county governments. It is clear in the Constitution and functions of the county governments are spelt out in the Fourth Schedule. Why do you not read it? You should manage the CDF, allocate funds based on functions of the national government and leave the county governments to do their job. Hon. Speaker, I have even heard from my colleague – I cannot see him today – a former councilor, that Members of the County Assemblies are councillors. If we have such mentality, this country will not move forward. We should tell Kenyans that those people elected as MCAs or we are electing as MCAs are no longer councillors. They elected people of integrity and who are competent enough to make decisions at the county. If they were making good decisions at the county level, we would not be spending time here discussing these serious issues that we see at the county. Some people look at it that we are supporting governors. It is not that I support governors, I know there are bad things that they do, but the solution is not to take away power from them and give it to someone else. If you give it to a Senator, you think these are angels? These Senators are also Kenyans like governors. They are the same as hon. Members. Therefore, I completely oppose this Bill. Further, you see Senators and Members of Parliament now wanting to form some boards at the constituency level, and I do not know the role of those boards. We have other laws like CDF Act which clearly spells out how we should engage the public in coming up with priority projects. Now you are creating a board and charging it on county government funds while we are complaining about Recurrent Expenditure and increasing wage bill. We are again participating in increasing the recurrent costs at the counties. Hon. Speaker, we gave our counties money and we want to go there and develop them. The governor was elected and was given a mandate to execute for five years. The governor should work with his executive and the county assembly. If they do not deliver, the public is out there waiting for them. The public will discipline and show them that this is the way we want our counties to be run. But the solution is not in trying to take away power from them, which is given by the Constitution. 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."
}