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"content": "national Government? If we reviewed the place, structure and roles created by the National Government Coordination Act, perhaps, in certain counties, we would release more offices which could be used to support devolution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support this Bill. However, I urge that we prioritise certain issues. For example, when we included these figures in the Division of Revenue Bill, there were some proposals to allocate about Kshs400 million to the respective counties. When you ask yourself how much that could do to health care, you, probably, might say that you could make more wins by investing that in health care rather than investing it in new fancy offices. We must also not be seen as a House that is bent on ensuring that we pad representatives rather than responding to the real needs of this nation. If you look at the density of doctors in this country, statistics indicate that there could be about two doctors for every 10,000 people in Kenya. If you look at the density of Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), it is almost the same. Probably, there could be more doctors than MCAs but the number is not very different. However, if you look at how much we spend on MCAs compared to what we spend on doctors, you will realise that we spend much more on MCAs on average compared to what we spend on doctors in this country. We need to ask ourselves whether that is the kind of prioritisation we want to promote. Looking at things like provision of water – because issues of water touch on our women, children and youth – should we use Kshs400 million to build sparkling new offices or should we use the money to prioritise issues of water? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support this Motion. However, I urge that we prioritise certain issues. We were very clear when we started that there were about four or five counties that were in dire need of new county headquarters. Where certain counties have certain minimum infrastructure, I urge that we do not open the pandora’s box and propose that we bring down buildings and put up new infrastructure. I hope that the Select Committee will not come up with very interesting and crazy models to say that every county assembly should look like this Senate. That will have disastrous consequences on public finance in this nation. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I also urge the Select Committee to extend a little bit and ask itself whether the Kshs61.5 million was used properly and whether there are certain lessons that could be learnt out of it. The Committee should also look at the heavy burden that the National Government Coordination Act is placing on counties and, probably, make certain recommendations concerning rationalisation or sharing of services between the two parallel structures. Finally, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I urge the Select Committee to avoid unnecessary luxury. Already, we, the political class, are seen to be pampered. So, when we set up new offices, we should do so for posterity. Let us avoid situations where we propose leather chairs and very hi-tech equipment. That will be as if we are vomiting on the shoes of the people that voted us into office. With those remarks, I beg to support. 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."
}