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"content": "we, ultimately, must ensure that more money is given to our counties, so that counties that exercise certain levels of wealth, like other places where devolution exists, are able to also experience that wealth first hand. I read in one of the dailies that billions of dollars worth of mining contracts, including those in Kwale, have been entered into. We are told that these contracts are confidential. If those reports are true, then it shows that there is a system that wants to deprive Kenya in its totality, of its wealth and unjustly enrich a few. Therefore, it will be important for Kwale, which has deposits of US$62.4 billion of wealth, to be the first primary frontier of benefit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Senator from Lamu wanted me to withdraw, but I can tell him for a fact that LAPSSET is one of the biggest programmes in terms of our vision of development. But how much scrutiny has been put into LAPSSET to ensure that local communities are the principal beneficiaries? I, therefore, support this Bill with a caveat, that we eventually must ensure that people within our counties--- That is why we fought for counties and devolution. We are not here to ensure that business is as usual. Therefore, jobs that can be done by people in a locality must be done by people of that locality. For jobs that do not need certain expertise from other parts of the country, we can get that expertise. But the priority, fundamentally, should be about the people of those areas enjoying the benefit of development, and therefore, we can say that we are in a devolved system of Government which is giving us a new foundation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think that it is important for our governors, through the Transition Authority (TA), the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) or whichever agency that can facilitate them, to give us a rough idea of what they really do require in terms of their vision and master plans for their counties. You cannot just tell us that you want to build a factory or a school somewhere. Every county must develop a master plan, so that we can see the vision of that county in the next 15 or 20 years. We must ensure that this Senate introduces a new Sessional Paper on development. Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965 marginalised us and that is still partly what informs Government planning and development agenda. That is why some areas have been highly developed while others are highly marginalized. Therefore, we need to introduce a Sessional Paper in this House that sets out the vision of development in this country, and our governors must reciprocate with master plans. This way, we can know, as a Senate, what we are facilitating. This will ensure that we project the sources that are required in various counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mombasa has a vision to be a free port. We must commit resources nationally to ensure that we realize that dream, because it is not only to the benefit of Mombasa, but the entire country, but with a caveat, that the principal beneficiaries must be the people of those areas. This is because we cannot always be told to be national when only a few of us are enjoying that national cake. Therefore, we must now ensure that we are as much devolved as we are national. Our counties and nation must come first. In other words, there must be a win-win situation. We cannot continue with this kind of situation where we have Senators who have no roads in their counties, and in one other place, roads are everywhere and yet, nobody has a car to drive. Therefore, it is important that all the counties of this country are given equal opportunity for development. It is high time that we connect Mombasa to Kwale, not only through Dongo Kundu, but with the bridge in Likoni. It costs us many man hours to cross from 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."
}