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"content": "they need that money so that they can ready themselves for next year. Otherwise, if we do not give them the money, they will never be ready. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also a big worry in terms of personnel. Counties are not ready because they do not have qualified personnel, yet in the devolved functions, there are departments which were already operating with personnel. If you are talking about hospitals, there are doctors. In the Ministry of Agriculture, there are experts there who are very qualified. Perhaps, the issue that should be considered is how to manage the personnel between the county governments and national Government. There will certainly be some resistance, because naturally, people resist change, because they do not know the future. There is the fear that once they are locked in those counties, as personnel of those counties, then they are not sure about their progression in service and schemes of service. They are also not sure how their pensions will be treated and whether training will be availed the way it was done when they were under the national Government. The solution would easily come if the two levels of Government sat together and, perhaps, considered some functions to remain at the national level. For instance, they could consider those officers to be on secondment to the devolved units, so that the national Government can consider running and managing the wage bill, to be refunded or reimbursed by the county governments. That has happened even with the parastatals. Currently, there is a lot of worry, particularly among doctors and nurses in the provincial and district hospitals. They are not sure of how devolution will affect them and their schemes of services. Devolution should not be used to punish innocent citizens who are working in the Government. Whether they are in the devolved governments or national Government, they should feel free and cared for by Kenyans whom they are providing the services to. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in devolving, what is emerging is that there is likely to be a lot of duplication of functions. For instance, in every county, there will be engineers for the national Government to take care, perhaps, of the construction of Classes B and C roads. The county governments will also have parallel engineers providing the same service for the other roads. The parastatals which are there for the roads sectors will also be in operation. So, there is going to be a lot of duplication and wastage in terms of resources. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe that the source of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money will still remain the national Government, as it is now, at least, for the time being. But as you know, the CDF was implemented with the support of district technical officers. Now that the technical officers will be in the county governments, how will the CDF tap into their support, unless there is a clear understanding and agreement? We do not know who is working on this interface or inter- governmental relationship from here up to the county level. Perhaps, at the national level, there is something going on, in the name of the summit, inter-government forums, the Transition Authority, the CIC and so forth. But on the ground, on day to day operations, there must be something that brings the two levels of government to work together. As at now, they are parallel. The County Commissioners and governors are running parallel. There must be a structured way, perhaps, through legislation that will compel them to work together and complement each other, as much as we want the two to be separate according to the Constitution. 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."
}