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{
    "id": 477331,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/477331/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "The County Accounts Committee has a huge role and I sit as a Member of that Committee, Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale being our Chair. For the few Governors, we have heard, the stories that come from county governments, coming from the Auditor-General’s report are scaring. They are scaring because today we even listened to one county where payments are made to a contractor before the contractor can receive a certificate of completion of his job. We have seen situations where single sourcing of contractors is done. If you do the research, you realize that the people who are given the work in the counties are the same contractors getting the same job, for example, in Elgeyo-Markwet, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Migori and many other counties. We must push for transparency and accountability. That transparency can be achieved through the County Accounts Committee which I sit in, but also individual Senators exercising vigilance in the counties and pointing out issues that are glaringly obvious. In fact, from the Committee we have realized that it looks like the Members of the County Assemblies have no capacity to ask the questions that we ask. There were certain basic questions that we posed today to one of the counties; simple questions, and you are told that Kshs61 million was returned to the national Government and when you go to the records of the national Government they say that it is only Kshs6 million that was returned. A lot of money is lost back and forth where individuals are blaming this person and the other person. Our County Accounts Committee should be able to call the equivalent committees of the counties and we look for ways of building capacity. That is the function of the national Government, including the Senate, because the Constitution envisaged that we would build the capacity of the counties when it comes to accountability. The stories of procurement in the counties would scare you. They would scare you because you will realize that the centralization of procurement in the counties has led to a situation where it is only those that are in the county headquarters who have devolved themselves from the national headquarters which is Nairobi to go to the county headquarters and engage in rent seeking. These are the ones that are getting all the contracts. What will happen to our women, youth and the marginalized communities in the counties? These counties must make sure that those people are feeling that they are part and parcel of the county. What about the use of this money? If you go to the various counties, you will realize that there is serious marginalization. It is only a week ago that my Committee tabled a report from the question of Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo, after listening to the Equality Commission, the CIC and the Council of Governors and the various reports from the counties. We realized that employment in the counties is skewed; people are employing their relatives. There is a lot of nepotism and a lot of marginalization of the indigenous communities. In fact, the Ogiek were hoping that through devolution they would have a greater say in the county governance of Narok and Nakuru counties. If you asked them today, they are the most disenfranchised because the dominant communities in the counties are employing their relatives and tribes. The marginalized groups in the various counties across the country are not getting a chance of representation. In our next round during the recess, during our Devolution Committee county visits, these are some of the questions we want the counties to answer to us directly and tell us, for example, of the communities 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."
}