Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 594175,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594175/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 340,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "profession. We refer to them as quacks. I do not know what such people who masquerade as lawyers are referred to because there are people who pretend to be lawyers. I do not know whether there is a different name or they are also referred to as quacks because there are quite a number of them who have inserted themselves into offices. We can see the fruits which are abnormal because of the kind of advice that county governments are getting. For example, there are Bills purported to have been done by Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) and there is no refined lawyer or legal expert that has gone through them. Some of the Bills, it is, as if they were written by school children yet there are people who are supposed to do that. There is somebody who resembles that in my county. I am told that there are integrity issues. People who are sacked in the national Government insert themselves into jobs in county governments before their names are cleared. You will never get anything sorted out in such scenarios. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, counties have gone into litigation with people who are supposed to be paying old rates. There are people who hid money during the defunct local authorities’ era. In Samburu County, the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee dealt with a case where some of the culprits made themselves senior members of the county government so that they could influence the case from inside. If we had established the County Attorney office with enough expertise as has been given, we would not be having the challenges that we have. We keep talking of lost money in counties. If these people were in place, most of what we are seeing would not be there. For instance, counties are constructing and they give out projects which they purport to have come from the Ministry of works experts. As soon as the experts exit, the procurement experts pick it up under the guidance of ruthless persons in the office of the governor or the governor himself and amend everything. You might have had the privilege, two weeks ago, to see very interesting sheds called market stalls in West Pokot County which look like improved sizes of cattle dips. Each cost over Kshs17million and if you do the actual audit of its cost, it is not more than Kshs500 000. Where was this County Attorney if there ever existed one there? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if this law existed before, together with the Attorney-General’s office in Nairobi, it would have been very easy to know who advises the county government. We got very interesting people like we have very interesting Senators here. We have some governors who never sat in any office before but through the processes of election, they found themselves in those offices and without the supporting documents, they are doing things which you would never imagine anybody alive can do. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if we had the County Attorney, the errors we are seeing would have not been there. Today we are using the County Governments Act to prescribe some interesting positions like legal adviser to the governor. About nine officers are working for the governor. If you scrutinise those in my county, one of them was employed before graduating. What certificate was used other than ‘this is my person?’ The officer can talk of few law terminologies without owning any certificate. I understand there is a school of law in Karen where after law undergraduate studies, one attends a further nine month training to be qualified as a legal officer. We have a number of them who finish on Monday morning and on Tuesday they are in 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."
}