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{
    "id": 470117,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/470117/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 45,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sang",
    "speaker_title": "The Senator for Nandi County",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 907,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Kipyego Sang",
        "slug": "stephen-kipyego-sang"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. May I take the first opportunity to thank the people of Nandi County for their wisdom in electing me as their first hon. Senator. I want to tell them from the Floor of this Senate that I will work to the best of my ability to represent Nandi County. I will ensure that this County leads in development. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues who managed to go through the same rigorous exercise and were elected as the first hon. Senators under the new Constitution. I also want to congratulate the nominated hon. Senators because of each of them performed certain responsibilities for their parties. They must have been able to stand out in terms of service to their political parties for them to find their way to the Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to congratulate you, the Deputy Speaker, the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader for the responsibilities bestowed on all of you. I hope we will be able to work together in ensuring that we are able to implement devolution in this country to the best of our abilities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to address myself to the Presidential Address. From the outset, I stand to support the Motion. I would like to highlight a number of issues in the Presidential Address. One of them is that the President recognized the role of the Senate in the new dispensation. In fact, he placed it to its rightful position. Since we started our sittings, we have embraced the fact that the Senate is the upper House. That came out very prominently in the mind of His Excellency the President. This is not the lower House as others are trying to portray. I appreciate the fact that the President has placed us there. It is important for all of us to take that advantage of the goodwill from the President in order to place the Senate in its rightful position. We had breakfast this morning with the officials of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). The Chairman kept on insisting that the Senate has huge responsibilities, powers and mandate. We have been tasked with the responsibility to oversee devolution in this country. I hope we will all remain true to that calling, so that after five years we will have 47 strong county governments performing the 14 functions in this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, under the current legislative framework, we still need to address a number of issues to ensure that we have a strong Senate. The position of the county assemblies in the running of a County Government is very critical. Therefore, the welfare of the County Assembly Members must be looked into. It is a pity that they will be earning Kshs79,000 per month. If they are not well taken care of they might be manipulated by the Governor. They will not be able to oversee the activities of the County Executive. They are supposed to be the watchdog of the County Executive. Therefore, it is only fair to take care of their wellbeing, so that we have a vibrant county assembly legislative arm. We would like them to enact legislation that will oversee the implementation of the 14 functions of county governments. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in his Address, the President mentioned that there is need to review some of the legislation that was passed in the Tenth Parliament. I know that the 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."
}