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{
    "id": 520586,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/520586/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It is, indeed, a sad day for Makueni and this Senate. I believe that this Senate must not be getting many of this Petitions or Motions for impeachment or dissolution. This Senate also needs to make a Statement to our county governments. County governments try to mirror the national Government and county governors try to mirror the national President. Most of them rather than pre-occupy themselves with governance and setting up of systems, part of the problems across the counties is lack of systems. Many of them think that to impress us means you have to go initiating or inaugurating development projects. Today you are digging boreholes and so on. I hardly know of any governor who is in the process of setting up systems of governance and government that work in the counties. Most of them are pre-occupied with personalization of county governments. County governments were about equity and service delivery. However, today if you look at it critically, I do not think there has been any fundamental shift in the improvement of services. I was once telling a county gathering in the coastal region that there is no county where you can go in a hall, queue and get all services in a one stop shop; similar to what the Huduma Centres do. How long does it take to connect people to water? How long does it take to get building approvals? In fact, county governments in some regards have become dens of corruption. People are put under more severe strain than it was with the former municipalities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, counties must realize that part of their obligation and duty is to set up systems of governance that better the lives of people through making service more accessible. Service delivery should become the mainstay of county governments. If you look at all this confusion in Makueni, it is partly about systems. I do hope that this commission will go a step further to give a precedent document, setting out the responsibilities of county governments and county assemblies to institutionalize themselves. After a Constitution is enacted, the next most important step is setting up institutions. I can tell you for a fact that our institutions at counties are far weaker than what we had envisaged. The MCAs, county speaker and governors are not strengthening these institutions. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is my hope that the issues around Makueni will come to a close with the approval of this Commission with its commencement of work and production of the report. If these commissioners are listening to us, once the President gazettes them to start, they should commence immediately. I hope the President and the executive will give them all the facilities to establish their secretariat. But most importantly, they should come back to us in a few weeks so that we can conclude this matter. Many of them are busy men and women. They also expressed the interest to conclude this assignment in the shortest time possible. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to second."
}