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{
    "id": 530540,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/530540/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 341,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "some places like Tana River where people were going to sit in makeshift structures and transact business. So, we categorized them into three. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the first category was the ones with nothing and there are three of them. The second category has 17 such counties with facilities that do not resemble anything. The third category was made up of improved municipal offices, but also did not look like assemblies. What we had in mind was to build county assemblies that were a replica across the country so that when the Head of State moves from Nairobi, he would see tiny replicas of county assemblies which would give meaning to devolution. So, when we came up with this idea, we were even given money to go and do benchmarking in South Africa, India and Canada. We were allocated money but the moment we called all the 300 consultants for a conference for one week, the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) came from nowhere with some rules that there must first exist a Governor and then a county assembly follows. I think we are very clear that county assemblies are not related to the Governors. The Governor is executive and the county assemblies are the legislature headed by a Speaker. So, when the people we had entrusted with this came up with very loud noise, we tried to explain to them what we were doing but we could not manage to convince them. The Ministry of Local Government was of the view that the Ministry of Public Works had taken their work and that is how the whole drama went to the extent that we took out two pages of daily newspapers to explain that we intended to do this in good faith. We thought we could save the situation. I am surprised that today, three years later, we are talking about the problem of Tana River which we had considered at that time and the estimates had been done. We had designs of a brilliant county assembly which was to cost Kshs100 million. Four of them would cost Kshs400 million, but now I think the cost is higher, three years later. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support this Motion, but later on, we will need to modify even the Kiambu County Assembly to look like a serious legislative House. West Pokot County which has something resembling a meeting place also needs to be redone. It falls under category two which includes Lamu, Kwale, Garissa, Bomet, West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet. The Elgeyo-Marakwet County Assembly is very peculiar because they are meeting in a very old mzungu house which used to be the District Commissioner’s (DC) office in 1940. It is made of bricks without cement. So, you can imagine how it looks like. There is also Kajiado, Isiolo, Samburu, Wajir, Marsabit, Turkana, Mandera, Kitui, Nyamira, Migori and Vihiga counties. There are a total of 20 counties which need to be urgently considered. Laikipia County Assembly falls in the category that should be improved. They wanted to move to a place called Mutara which has nothing on site. We advised them that since they have a choice between Nyahururu and Nanyuki where they currently are, they at least have a luxury to sit there for a few more years. 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."
}