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{
    "id": 474050,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/474050/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 265,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "July 22, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 33 Sen. Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this is something that is known to this House and to the Governors – if you speak to the Governors, they will tell you that they have a lot of staff that they do not need. However, as anybody with experience in Government knows, it is not very easy to retire staff from public offices; it not very easy to fire staff from public offices either. In fact, we have situations in Nyeri County where we have a huge number of people who are supposed to be livestock inspectors and agricultural officers who sit in Nyeri Town and in the last many years, they have never visited a farm within Nyeri County. When the Governor proposed that these people get motorbikes so that they can be visiting the farms, a lot of them opted to resign; only that there was no scheme to do so. So, you will find that the issue of quality is as important as the issue of quantity. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, what we are saying is that we prefer that every county, indeed, should be given the capability of using at least 50 per cent of their money on development because devolution did not create a personnel office whose job is simply to pay people; that is not the idea! The idea is to utilize those people so that they can bring development to the counties. But if we do not assign sufficient funding for those counties and if, as I was saying earlier in the day, we devolve functions to those counties and we do not devolve the requisite amounts to enable them to function and to carry out those responsibilities that the national Government was carrying out, then you will find that money meant for development will still be used for recurrent expenditure. Madam Temporary Speaker, we are hoping that when the Public Procurement and Disposal (Amendment) Bill comes to this House, a few things are going to happen; one, is that we are going to ensure that 30 per cent of the procurement from the monies allocated are actually given to youth and women. But even if we sign in this House that, that is what is going to happen and you do not have the money to spend on those development issues, then even the 30 per cent we are talking about procuring will be an insignificant amount. Therefore, we need to focus on this issue; we need to work backwards rather than forwards. In other words, the way to do this – and we should also consider this aspect when we look at the formula that the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) brings to this House – when we are considering that formula, let us work backwards; let us ask ourselves “what is the expenditure base of the various counties?” Then, after that, we can talk about adding the 40 per cent for development. But if you simply give a county a certain amount of money and expect that automatically, 40 per cent of that money is going to be spent on development, I think we will be behaving like the proverbial ostrich – simply burying our heads into the ground and assuming that everything is okay. The only thing we can be sure about is that it will not be okay and we will not achieve the 40 per cent that we are talking about. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Committee on Information and Technology, which I chair, in conjunction with the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget, which I am also a Member, intends to bring to this House what we are calling the County Resource Management Transparency Bill. This Bill will mandate the county governments 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."
}