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{
    "id": 594927,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594927/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 196,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Nabwala",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13116,
        "legal_name": "Catherine Mukiite Nabwala",
        "slug": "catherine-mukiite-nabwala"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I rise to contribute to this very important Bill, The Office of The Attorney Bill, 2014. The Bill seeks to establish offices for the attorney in the counties. This is long overdue. We should have started this maybe in 2013 when we set pace for devolution, because we are aware of the challenges that county governments have been going through. The capacity of legislation in some counties is wanting. Therefore, the introduction of the office of the county attorney will support county assemblies in drafting and legislating their laws. When we have good laws in place, that is the only way that the Senate would oversight because our main mandate is to oversight counties and see to it that they have good laws in place in order to manage their financial affairs. This Bill, therefore, seeks to replicate the duties of the Office of the Attorney-General to counties in view of decentralised governance. I, therefore, support it. However, I will add that it should be an independent office because if governors are the ones who will appoint the attorneys, then, it means that the attorneys will be answerable to the governors and will have to sing the governors’ music. If we want to help counties, let the office be independent so that the county attorney can represent the county without being intimidated. The Bill also outlines ethical values and principles, something which is very important. As we are aware, there is a lot happening. Sometimes when you go to court, you will not find fairness in the judgments delivered. Therefore, if ethical values and principles are adhered to, I think, we will be moving in the right direction to try and improve the quality of legislation and drafting of laws in counties. In the past, we have seen governors coming with lawyers they have hired when they appear before a committee of the Senate and that is costly. If we have the office of the attorney in the counties, we will cut out on huge costs which governors incur while hiring the attorneys. Sometimes, they pay very huge amounts for legal fees which cannot be justified. Once we have 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."
}