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{
    "id": 469458,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469458/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 69,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "government shedding off medical care and remaining at level five hospitals only. They will say that they will only take care of Class C roads and above and yet there are some counties that do not even have a Class C road. You will find that the national government will take care of only national schools, but how many of them are there? There are very few, so the rest are expecting to be funded from the county kitty. You will find that the county governments will be given little money for the youth and women and told to budget for them but how much are we giving them? It is piteous and yet they have to pay debts. What will happen is that very soon you will see members of the public using clever lawyers, like Sen. Kajwang here, going to court, garnishee the accounts of the counties and attach their money. Much soon than later, you will see members of the public or organizations owed money applying to commit the Governor to civil jail because of debts, the same way they do to Permanent Secretaries and others who are accounting officers. As long as the Governor is an accounting officer, he must honour the responsibility of paying debts. By doing this, we are saving the devolution that we all cherish and putting it on track to success, we are putting it in a position for wananchi to pick, the way it is said in the United Nations (UN) that pick first the low hanging fruits. The low fruits are for people to see the difference between a county council and a county government in terms of service provision, facilities and orientation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, finally, even as we remove these debts, there is something that the Senate must insist on; security issues in counties. It is not possible for the Governor of a county to be a chief executive and does not sit in security organs. He does not even know what is going on within his own county. Like in my troubled county of Bungoma, a County Commissioner, who has been declared illegal by the High Court, calls a security meeting and expels the Governor from sitting in the meeting. I am talking about a county where there is insecurity and the people are being brutalized day and night. It is the Governor who is accountable to the people of Bungoma and indeed any other county. This Senate has a legal and moral duty to protect the interests of the county governments, protect and uphold the dignity of Governors and all instruments around them because they represent the will of the people."
}