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{
    "id": 474069,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/474069/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 284,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatangi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 646,
        "legal_name": "Paul Kimani Wamatangi",
        "slug": "paul-kimani-wamatangi"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I thank my colleague, the Senator for Kakamega, for that information. Indeed, just in addition to the point that the Senator has informed me on, it is not only the county assemblies, but as a Committee, there was a time when we made a visit to one of the counties and we could not find even one county executive committee member. All of them had also traveled. This is the kind of responsibility that we are saying must be seen now to come from the Governors. Madam Temporary Speaker, I know that it is very controversial, but one question that, as a country, eventually we might have to deal with and give an appropriate answer to is: Do we want Governors to continue to be selected from politicians? All the debate that we have heard here today from my honourable colleagues, about ceremonies that are elaborate and expensive and the wanton spending of money at the county level; sometimes all this is just in the play of politics. For example, how on earth is the Governor for a county like Nairobi expected to take up the role of leading this county, be a politician and balance all the competing political interests? Let us imagine all the Governors in all the metropolitan counties like Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa and Kiambu where we have so many communities and competing political interests. We should ask ourselves, as a country, whether we should continue to pick our Governors from the political class. The question whether they should continue being elected the way we do is one that we have to deal with, so that we can probably attain a threshold where we can have a Governor who can be there just to deliver services professionally, without having to balance political interests or look at political survival. If we have not sorted that question, then we cannot complain that a Governor who brought in women or school children to sing in an occasion. This is because if he does not do that, the Senator will do it. If the Senator does not do it, then the Member of the National Assembly will do it and they have to compete on the same threshold. I think that, that is a very important question that we have to address. 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."
}