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{
    "id": 469653,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469653/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Assembly among others is Kshs10 billion. If you ask your child what fraction of the Kshs500 billion public wage bill that the commission is concerned about then it comes to 0.2 per cent. It is not even 1 per cent. How does the reduction, therefore, of the salaries of these elected members of the society really reduce the public wage bill? It does not make sense. Secondly, the group targeted is the leadership of the country. We spent years fighting for freedom and democracy of this country. These institutions have come a long way in terms of enhancing democracy, in terms of enhancing the freedoms of people, in terms of ensuring accountability and in terms of ensuring that there is transparency in the way public service is delivered and the way public finances are accounted for. If today those institutions that are charged with ensuring that there is accountability and who are the leadership of this country are undermined, I do not understand whether the aim is not to kill these institutions in the long run. What will happen is that the quality of leadership and the kind of people attracted to these institutions will slowly by slowly drift away from these institutions. Today I know in my county Mandera, more than 90 per cent of the county assembly members are people with either the first degree or second degrees. If you tell them that, indeed, the salaries of the personal assistant of the Governor will be more than theirs and yet it is approved by them, then what would happen is that in the next election we will not attract any of these quality people. Ultimately then these institutions will die. So, I actually find a situation where the commission is unfortunately, as accountants would say, are more penny wise than pound foolish. They do not seem to see the larger picture. The larger picture is that you must retain the top leadership in any institution. Even if you go to the corporate world, the people you compensate are the leadership of the company or that corporate entity because those are the people who will determine whether that corporate entity will succeed or fail. When you under-compensate that leadership of management then you are killing that corporate entity. The same thing will happen today if we do not look at those 700,000 and we only select about 1,000 or so elected leadership only in terms of reviewing salaries; then we are going to kill those institutions in the long term. I think the whole process of paying the county assembly members this paltry amount is undermining devolution grossly. I beg to support the Motion."
}