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{
    "id": 497915,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/497915/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I thank the Mover of the Bill for having gone through the existing legislations to make sure that they are compliant with the new Government structure in the sense that whatever applies to the national Government and to the existing Government institutions should also apply to the county governments. In this case, when it comes to somebody going to court to claim anything from the Government, there must be a procedure which has already been taken care of in Section 21 of the Government Proceedings Act. We should make sure that it applies to the county governments. Madam Temporary Speaker, as the Mover has said, this might have been an oversight when the County Government Act was passed. We have already seen its effects in the case of Webuye and we need to move fast to stop this damage. If one has anything against the county government, then the same procedure which is applied to Government institutions should also apply to the county governments. This is so that whatever funds we move from the centre to the county governments are not spent on settling debts of the previous county councils, municipal councils and the like, which were the predecessors to the current county governments. Because of that, I support this Bill. Government officers or those who are entrusted with doing business on behalf of Kenyans, either through appointment or election, should be very careful. They should be prudent whenever they commit the governments at any level or in any public institution so that we do not incur these unnecessary debts. What happens is that maybe somebody borrowed funds or any property from a Kenyan, just like we do in business. Maybe a county council would owe somebody something; that person has a right to have his property restored or whatever is owed being paid back. We should also urge public officers to be prudent and not to commit the Government unnecessarily because with the transition from the county councils to county governments, we also have to be careful. Sometimes people could even come up with debts which they could not get through the county council maybe because it was not procedural and then one could try to make use of this transition to lump all these things on the county government. Because of that, we have to be prudent, as public officers, to make sure that we do not commit government to unnecessary debts because that will now disadvantage the Kenyan whose property or service has been used and now you come up with a law which will disadvantage the Kenyan himself. So, it requires prudence on both sides; public servants have to be careful on how they commit public institutions. Similarly, Kenyans also have to claim what is theirs but not collude with public servants, thinking that what belongs to the public belongs to nobody and so, anybody can get it. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, I support the Bill and hope that once it is implemented, we will save our county governments from what they have already started experiencing, like in Webuye and Kisii, as it has been mentioned. Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. 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."
}