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"content": "“(1) A function or power of government at one level may be transferred to a government at the other level by agreement between the governments if— ( a ) the function or power would be more effectively performed or exercised by the receiving government; and ( b ) the transfer of the function or power is not prohibited by the legislation under which it is to be performed or exercised.” Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am afraid because some of these functions are so sensitive, particularly education and health, that it is really not enough for the Treasury to give money to counties conditionally, without, first and foremost, ascertaining this condition provided for in the Constitution; that the entity to which you are transferring this function will perform it effectively. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the legislations that refer to some of these functions are yet to be developed. As you know, during the Tenth Parliament, we tried our best to pass many laws regarding the implementation of this Constitution, but we did not deal with all of them. A lot of legislations were left pending because of time and the volume of work that was to be done. Now, we are not quite sure whether some of the functions that the Treasury is hiving off to counties could be prohibited, if the necessary legislations had been enacted. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second thing in that particular Article which is important reads:- “(2) If a function or power is transferred from a government at one level to a government at the other level— ( a ) arrangements shall be put in place to ensure that the resources necessary for the performance of the function or exercise of the power are transferred; and ( b ) constitutional responsibility for the performance of the function or exercise of the power shall remain with the government to which it is assigned by the Fourth Schedule.” Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of things that we are trying to do is to fulfill the requirements of this Article, to make sure that whatever function has been assigned in this Constitution to county governments; resources are available for those functions. So, it would be a necessary exercise actually, while we are debating this Motion, for us to go through those functions, to find out whether, indeed, in this Appropriation Bill resources have been made available for all those functions. It is a very tedious exercise, but very necessary. But I do not think that it will be done successfully in debating this Bill. It will be done more successfully in debating the Appropriation Bill, because it is only then that we shall see how the money being appropriated is aligned to specific functions that are in this Constitution and the counties. These are important things that we need to do, but I am just wondering whether during this particular debate; we shall be able to do it, but that is the correct way to do it, if indeed we are going to interrogate this particular Bill properly. I do believe that the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs will guide the House in that regard, but I am just trying to enlighten the Members who are not in that Committee that, that is a necessary thing to do. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that I to want raise, which is equally important, is that we have been debating the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) 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."
}