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    "id": 594910,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594910/?format=api",
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    "content": "am prepared to move that amendment in this House at the appropriate time, but I would like to work with the Committee so that there is no contradiction between my aspiration and their good legal minds. Madam Temporary Speaker, let me also go further and commend this Bill for another positive quality that it is bringing to the running of county governments. County governments have been slow in passing Bills that will help institutionalize devolution and effect good governance at the county level. If you look at the records of county governments and county assemblies so far, the number of Bills that have been passed to improve good governance and good performance at the county level are not very impressive. I would not blame county governments and county assemblies for these poor records, but I would say there are two things here: First, is the problem of being pioneers and secondly the problem of being “tender classy”. I think there has been too much attention at the county level, given to issuance of tenders for projects implementation without paying attention to the proper legal framework in which projects implementation at the county level will take place. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Bill not only establishes the Office of the County- Attorney and the Office of the Deputy County-Attorney, and provides them with necessary functions, but it also lays a lot of emphasis on county legal counsel. In other words, there are going to be lawyers at the county level who will carry out legal work at the county, to help county governments not only fight cases in court - I think that is another defensive way of looking at the legal work- but also be creative in making laws. Coming from both the Committees of Devolution where I served for two years and the Committee of County Public Accounts and Investments as well as the Committee of Finance, Commerce and Budget which I am still serving, one of the things that has struck us in these Committees, is the fact that a lot of faults are committed, not by acts of commission, but by acts of omission. Madam Temporary Speaker, it seems to me as if certain things are done quite often not intentionally but because Members of County Assemblies or the governors just do not know what they are doing. As Jesus said, sometimes it is possible to pray for them saying; “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” This prayer will be saved when we have these county legal counsel who should wade through the needs of county governments in making certain relevant laws or legal framework or implementation of the projects in the county; a function that now is haphazardly outsourced to private legal counsels, and as my friend, Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. said earlier, these legal counsels charge the counties an arm and a leg. Finally, Madam Temporary Speaker, the present bad practice where county governments give jobs to their law friends by creating funds that anticipate legal battles in the future, will definitely be discouraged when we have both the office of the county attorney and the legal counsel. In the event of a legal battle, however huge that legal battle is, county governments will just source legal resources or expertise from their own attorneys. This is extremely good, not only in saving money, but making county governments much more respectable in the eyes of the public. After all, the Constitution says that we have two levels of government; the national Government and the County Government. If the national Government is operating through the use of the Attorney-General’s office and a battery of lawyers employed by the State, there is no reason why the county governments should not replicate what happens at the national level, so that they do behave as a government and gain the respectability that a government needs from its people. 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."
}