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{
    "id": 513295,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/513295/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
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    "content": "What goes to the county government should also be shared between the county government and the communities that live there. We have seen that; if you go to Maasai Mara, whatever is collected as revenue from the tourist park fees and so on, and so forth, there is a 19 per cent that has been given out for many years now to the communities around the park. One advantage of that is to ensure conservation of wildlife in that area. Two, is to compensate them because they cannot use those areas of the park for grazing their livestock. So, in the same way, it is an important thing to compensate the communities directly. They can use that amount of money for their cultural purposes, educational or any other activity. That percentage is very important, that out of the 40 per cent which goes to the county, at least 40 per cent of it should go to community projects. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other thing which is important is the money which goes to the county governments. In addition to what they get from the national revenue, they will now have access to money that comes to them from here. So, the demand for accountability, integrity, prudent financial management and good governance in our counties becomes even more necessary because of this kind of funding which will go there. If a county government today is unable to spend properly Kshs.4 billioin or Kshs.5 billion, if we do not build the capacity of those county governments, if they end up with Kshs.20 billion or Kshs.30 billion tomorrow, we will get into a crisis. This is why it is essential for the Senate to take their mandate seriously to ensure that counties develop capacity to manage their affairs, to utilize resources efficiently and effectively so as to assist their areas. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 27 about the benefits sharing agreement and the fact that it will now reside in the county government is also important. The benefit sharing agreement says in Clause 27(1): “These organizations that are exploiting those minerals or resources will enter into county benefit sharing agreements with the respective county government.” This is important; what happens now and what happened before is that these things were done in the Ministries here. So, if you come from Europe and you want to do some mining in Mandera, first, you have to get into a deal with those guys. This denies the people of the county the opportunity to be involved, be engaged and to know what is going on and even that transparency is lacking. There are many countries today where you do not even know what is in the benefit sharing agreement between the national Government and those companies that are exploiting resources there. It is the same thing in this country. If you ask today about Turkana, who has got the details relating to the benefits sharing that has been signed with the Government? The same agreement was in Uganda when Tullow Oil discovered oil--- ( Sen. Billow spoke off record)"
}