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{
    "id": 469598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 209,
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    "content": "The conspiracy is to make sure you do not attract the right people to serve as county assembly members, Senators and Governors, so that eventually mediocrity creeps in and, therefore, devolution falls asunder. It is important now at this point for the Senate also to assert its rightful role in the devolution structure. I think the Transition Authority (TA) partly is the reason we have the devolution chaos. The Senate must, therefore, assert its legislative and whatever other functions to ensure that devolution retains its proper place. The county assemblies and the Senate must be respected. Madam Temporary Speaker, I heard Madam Serem yesterday say that the reason she pegged the salaries of Members of the National Assembly in tandem with those of the Members of the Senate is because, in her own assessment of the duties and roles of the Senator, she found that we had a lower threshold of responsibilities. Those of us who listened to her live interview heard what she said. Those were her words. It is not in Serem’s mandate to define the structure and organization of Government. Therefore, the Senate and other bodies charged with that responsibility must henceforth rise to that responsibility. She has the mandate to set the salaries, but she has no mandate to tell us that we have lower responsibilities. Just because your function is defined by two or three lines does not make the ones whose functions are defined by more lines as greater functions. It is simplistic if she cannot determine who between a Senator and a Member of the National Assembly has higher standing and stature in the organization of Government. She has no idea what the role of the county assembly is all about. In my view, it is important to unlock this stalemate so that the county assemblies work. In laying the foundation of the county assemblies, these county assemblies must get to work as soon as is practically possible with part of their demands being negotiated. I have seen several functionaries of Government saying that they are ready for dialogue, so that we come out of this impasse . We, as Senate, must direct that there be dialogue with members of the county assemblies. I want to assure them as a Senate that we are ready to defend devolution. Even if it means that we go back to the people because it is the people who gave us this mandate. We are ready to do so. We are ready to explain to the people of the Republic of Kenya the justifications and positions that have been taken by country assembly members. We must continue to make public service attractive. We must not remove the incentives from public service. Let all young Kenyans who aspire to be professionals see that there is a profession in public service. Do not undermine the public service to create the county councils of yesteryears where a mayor could sit on the entire county council and engage them in bribery and little struggles of life and undermine the very essence of what devolution was all about. I am confident that this Senate will assert itself and restore the stature. I want to tell Serem that, we, in Mombasa voted enmasse for the Constitution because we believed in devolution. We have 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."
}