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{
    "id": 594924,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594924/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 193,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndiema",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1067,
        "legal_name": "Henry Tiole Ndiema",
        "slug": "henry-tiole-ndiema"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this important Bill, which seeks to set the counties on a proper footing, particularly legislative wise. The role of the county attorney is very important; there has been a vacuum in that we have county governments right now which have got no legal minds to advise them. County assemblies and the county executive require advice. No wonder for the few years that we have been having devolution, we have seen many situations where things have not been done in an accountable manner; that we can in all cases, defend as being legal. The coming into place of a county attorney is timely and I do fully support. The other area in the county assembly that I feel should be considered is the issue of accountability. The audit results we are getting are that in some counties, the audit reports and the statements do not conform to international standards. This means that the persons employed to do accounting in counties are not professional accountants. In some cases, counties have not been able to legislate as fast as we would wish them to do, and effectively as they should, because they lack legal minds to assist them in drafting Bills and also in advising. Right now, there are many cases, conflicts and stalemates, between county assemblies and the executive especially on budget issues. In my county, for instance, there is a budget stalemate. I imagine that if there was a county attorney in the county, he would have been in a better position to advise the assembly and the executive on how to settle that conflict; because each side is arguing that they are on a legal right. The county assembly thinks that they are the ones to decide the budget; while on the other hand, the executive thinks that they are the ones who have the final say on the budget. The coming into place of the county attorney will be of great use to counties. Counties are incurring a lot of costs, engaging consultants in almost every field; planners, political advisers, lands surveyors and so on, yet, some of them could be housed in-house in the counties. A lot of funds have been used to hire lawyers to defend the simplest of cases. The worrying part of it is that counties are signing contracts committing counties to colossal sums of 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."
}