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{
    "id": 468457,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/468457/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 58,
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    "content": "Two, the Constitution in the Sixth Schedule provides that the function of the national Government is to ensure that capacity of the county governments is built in the first three years of the transition period. So, that Ministry will be in charge of co- ordination of capacity building by national Government during the transitional period to the counties. We have discussed in this House that counties are lacking capacity to deal with matters such as budgeting and creating office infrastructure at the local level. So, that is the function of that Ministry for the short time. If you look at the budget, you could almost say that, that function of inter-governmental relations that is going to be dealt with that Ministry is about 5 per cent of the budget allocation to that Ministry. Mr. Speaker Sir, there is the question of; does it have anything to do with co- ordination of county governments? That Ministry has nothing to do with the co- ordination of national government administration. Indeed, the office that will do that co- ordination are the county commissioners. The work that the county commissioners are dealing with is basically the Ministry of Interior and co-ordination of national Government; I take notice that the President has just nominated the Cabinet Secretary to be vetted for that Ministry. For that reason, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Devolution has nothing to do with the county commissioners. There is no correlation. The question of these county commissioners being in office illegally even after the courts have made a decision that they should not be in place does not arise because the decision that was made by the courts was rectified when the National Assembly and the Senator who has asked the question, Sen. (Dr.) – and I must emphasize the part of “Doctor” – Khalwale plus the Leader of Minority, among others, sat and passed a legislation called “National Government Co-ordination Act” that regularized the creation of the offices of county commissioners that are co-ordinating functions of the national government at the county level. This House has a Motion which is pending, and that Motion is going to re-look at the Act itself vis-a-vis whether it is going to affect the relationship between the national and county governments, and whether it has any interferences. When that time comes, we will – all of us as a House – have an opportunity to relook at that legislation. We must remember that the National Assembly – I almost said the Lower House – had decided at that time that there were various legislations that they had passed which may have effect on the Constitution. In fact, there is a question of the constitutionality of legislation that were passed by the National Assembly, and the constitutionality is this; the Constitution in the Schedule says that the National Assembly can sit as a Senate for purpose of passing certain legislations. But the question we need to ask ourselves is: Did the National Assembly at that time consciously sit down and say “today, we are sitting as Senate and, therefore, when we vote, we must vote as delegations that represent the various counties” so that every county has a vote? So, we have questions that this House is going to re-look at various legislations of the National Assembly. At that point in time, my friend, Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale and myself, among others will be raising questions – whether on the Public Finance Management Act, the Intergovernmental Relations Act, the County Governments Act, the Transition to County Governments Act – on whether they are compliant to the requirements that counties require. 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."
}