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{
    "id": 505313,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/505313/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndiema",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1067,
        "legal_name": "Henry Tiole Ndiema",
        "slug": "henry-tiole-ndiema"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I stand to support the amendments except for a few areas that I will briefly touch on. On the issue of Urban Areas and Cities Act, I find the amendments here quite in order. The original Act made conditions so difficult that we ended up demoting urban centres which had certain status for long. An example is Kitale which has been a municipality as long as I can remember but it is now not a municipality. The law should also recognise the present status and not make things so difficult. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the amendment proposes that all county headquarters be considered for a certain status of municipality. I do agree with that because in classifying urban centres, we should plan ahead. We should not wait until population has grown with unplanned structures and then we say we want to convert them to municipalities. I think we should be forward looking provided there is land and adequate plans showing that the urban centre is aiming to be a municipality. There is nothing wrong in classifying it as a municipality. The issue of giving equal opportunities to all counties through making all the county headquarters municipalities is appropriate. Regarding the areas of the Transition Authority, I do not quite understand why this amendment is necessary when we know quite a substantial number of functions have been transferred and the few that are remaining should have been transferred by now. The only problem we have experienced in this area is resources being availed to county governments to undertake these functions. The Transition Authority has not done valuation of assets and has not unbundled the functions. So how can it, therefore, ask for more time to assess whether a function will be transferred or not? There seems to be mischief here where transfers of functions seem to be facing or projected to face some delay or an elaborate effort to delay transfer of functions. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there is the issue of County Governments Act where a County Consultative Forum for the coordination of development is supposed to be formed. I believe the executive is already a forum to coordinate development within the executive in the county. You do not need to legislate that because the executive is already there and its work is to coordinate development. What is required in the Constitution is that there must be participation and all-inclusive involvement in planning. The public is also supposed to be included. The first people to be involved must, of course, be the representatives of the people beginning with the constitutional representative of a county in the name of a Senator and the representative of the people in the name of Members of the National Assembly and Members of the County Assemblies. As long as those are not involved in development activities at the county level, we cannot say that bringing professionals will make that forum complete. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we already have an Act of Parliament on County Development Board although it is facing challenges, I believe it can be amended to include co-opting members from professional organizations. Even here, it is not defined what professional organizations are. What prevents individuals from appointing their friends to development forums who may not really be professionals in the manner that is suitable? We need the relevant committee to look into this issue so that it is rejected outrightly and County Development Boards are put into place. 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."
}