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"content": "member of finance who is now very powerful; and I am sorry to say that. That is the impunity we are facing in this country, where we have a character who, when he stands in front of people, he feels that he is in office and he can overrule others. He talks as if he has no regard or respect for that institution. I always say that all these institutions, regardless of the individual who is in that institution and whether you like them or not, but it is an institution that we must ensure it has respect and people adhere to Chapter Six of the Constitution. Today when you look at the County Executive Committee Members (CECs) for Finance, they are the ones who are crippling the county assemblies. The county assemblies make their budgets, present them early to the CEC in charge of finance and now it depends on the CEC for finance and the Governor on whether they will forward it to Nairobi or not. So, if they decide today - and I will not say names - but there is one CEC who said “after all, we looked at it and we decided that as a county, they do not deserve to have any resources.” Therefore, it ends there. As much as we thought we were assisting both governments; and the Constitution says that we have a county Government with the county assembly and the County Executive, we created another monster. Now the county assemblies are facing a very difficult task that even within their budgets, they cannot budget for their own development. Similarly, you go to a county and find that the Governor, as he continues with his development agenda, the county assembly is so lowly regarded because they have realized they can put ceilings on them and nobody can check what they are spending on their side. Therefore, the oversight role of the 47 county assemblies is right now in turbulence. For them to survive, they have to work with their Governors. You find that sometimes, as we put ceilings for foreign travel, we are not asking the Governors about their entourage. We have not asked them about Members of County Assembly (MCAs) they carry along and, therefore, by the time he or she is coming back, the county assembly, in terms of their checks and balances to the executive also comes into question, yet it is not their wish. But when you also look at the recommendations that the Committee has given, these are some of the recommendations that can now guide the process so that we do not politicize the issue between the governors and the county assemblies. More importantly, within the mechanisms that we have proposed, the County Assembly has to look for a better way to work with their CECs. You find that in some counties, the CEC for finance and the County Assembly Clerk or the Speaker cannot sit on one table and decide on some of these issues. As much as the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA) will say “we would want to see you both; come and sit down so that we discuss this”, it is so difficult for them to discuss because they already have bad blood between them. We thought that we were bringing in a devolved system that will create services, but we have ended up having a devolved system that has a lot of other emerging issues. For example, the Governor will appreciate when he has a CEC in charge of finance who is very close to him; who either was once an aide or somebody they have once worked with very closely and, therefore, he or she will listen to the Governor. Anyway, because the executive team comes in with the Governor, they will always have to respect the 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."
}