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{
    "id": 603242,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/603242/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, that is my uncle who is vying for the chairmanship of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party in Homa Bay County and he has my full 100 per cent support. Having said that, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to support this Bill. In doing so, I want to say that I worked at the Office of the Attorney-General as a State Counsel for three years. Anybody who has worked there knows that this is a primary legal document that you use for civil proceedings for Government agencies. Based on my experience, it is important that the same privileges that are accorded the national Government be accorded the county governments. That is because the challenge that you would face is that county governments will be exposed. The Constitution identifies them as very distinct entities from the national Government. Then that means that with the challenges that they are facing in terms of cash flows, you will have all manner of people going to court and being given orders to execute and attach the property of the county governments. This might compromise development. However, I would want to just thank the Vice-Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs for indicating that they are trying to look at comprehensive amendments to the Government Proceedings Act because we must also make sure that there is a balance. One of the imbalances I saw is that, sometimes, we over-protect the Government. As much as it is good that we give a level of protection, we must also look at instances where the Government itself is not meeting its obligation to the citizenry and, hence, all the many hitches from giving notices to getting orders from the courts in order to execute any court orders. There must be some level of balance. This is because anybody who has ever sued the Government of Kenya, knows that it is a journey that would take almost ten years. If it is a private citizen, it might take you, maybe, three years. But for the Government, it is frustrating and most people give up. I would also want to urge the Committee that as they are doing this review, they look into some peculiar instances that I have come across. While executing my mandate as the Member for Parliament for Mbita, I found a court order to sell one of the primary schools in Kasigunga Ward called Lusare. Through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), we had to pay Kshs2 million to rescue the school. Since then, another person has gone and attached part of the school purporting that it belongs to a private individual. There must be a way that the Government does its business in a more cohesive manner where we do not have half of the schools missing titles. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}