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{
    "id": 571326,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/571326/?format=api",
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    "content": "do not think there is a county which does not need some manner of support in order for it to be fully adequate. Some were so seriously disadvantaged that there is need for this House to evaluate that situation. A decision could be one way or the other. A case in point just as an example is Nyandarua County. For some historical reason, we did not inherit either the provincial administration or municipal and county council offices. May be, I would not bother the House so much by going into the history of it. Mr. Temporary speaker, Sir, perhaps it would suffice to say that history is a very strange phenomenon because when you go back to it, you only learn the facts, but you cannot change them. Somehow, when the central Government went to build the headquarters of the then Nyandarua County Council, for some reason they went to a town which was outside the county. May be Nyandarua and Nyahururu sounded similar, but it is a historical fact that that is what happened. As a result, that county found itself with none of those facilities which other counties inherited. I am aware there are quite a number of other counties. For example, this House did not support my move when I tried to see whether it could support that particular county and three others – Tana River, Lamu and Tharaka-Nithi counties. However, the sentiments of Members who spoke were that those four with the others that I was trying to push for are not necessarily the only ones with a problem, which could be much more widespread than those four. In my thinking, I thought that perhaps the best thing was to listen to the voice of the Members who said, this is not the only one, let us have a way of looking at all of them and see to what extent this House requires to step in. Article 96 of the Constitution says:- “The Senate represents the counties, and serves to protect the interests of the counties and their governments.” To me, that safeguarding or protecting of the counties’ interests also includes protecting and facilitating them and making sure that where they are operating from – not necessarily offices – is reasonably adequate. That way, none of them would be clumsily disadvantaged. Mr. Temporary speaker, Sir, when we say county facilitation so that county Governments can operate properly, we quickly think about buildings. However, there are very many other services which a county which may have inherited those other facilities might not have. For example, you may have a county Government which inherited very good buildings that belonged to a municipality, but you will find that there was no sewerage system or water. It is through this Motion that I am urging the Senate to attempt to look into those issues. A decision will have been made once the Senate has delved into that issue and a report will be made. I suggest that we form a committee comprising of seven Members, and I am sure within one or two months, they will have delved into all the 47 counties and made a report. As I said earlier on, the House could make a decision on which way to go. They could very well find out that the problem is not as big as you are thinking. They could also find that it is quite big and it needs the intervention of the national Government in a big way. Either way, I wish to urge the House to support this Motion so that we have this 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."
}