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{
    "id": 607159,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/607159/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
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    "content": "dividend of this nation. I also wish to thank all the Senators who stood by my family and the people of Homa Bay during the untimely demise of my brother and former Senator for Homa Bay, the late Sen. Gerald Otieno Kajwang. I have just come from the trenches and we have been talking to the public to gauge their perception on devolution. The main reason I decided to join this House is because I believe in devolution and the mandate of this House. When we walked round the great Homa Bay County, we saw cases of success in devolution. In as much as county governments are barely two years old, we have started seeing small fruits of devolution. A few examples could suffice. By having solar powered street lighting in some remote villages, women there can now trade for longer hours than before. This means that they can make a little bit more money to feed their children and take them to school. That has made a positive contribution to the lives of people. We have seen small initiatives like opening up of roads. In Suba Constituency in Homa Bay County, there is no single inch of tarmac. Through the county government opening up roads, at least 12 kilometres of roads per ward, it has opened up parts that were hitherto no-go-zones in this constituency and allowed farmers to reach the market with their produce much faster. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there are many small success stories on devolution. Unfortunately, a lot of these stories, to me, are neither as revolutionary nor as innovative as we would wish them to be. A lot of the things we are seeing coming out of the county governments are what we would call business as usual. They are not revolutionary and will not transform our counties and the country, to the level of the Singapores and the other more developed economies of this world. Having walked round looking for votes, there is a lot of concern that on the objectives of devolution, as stated in the Constitution, perhaps we seem to be missing the point. The people are saying that we did not go for devolution so that we could devolve payrolls because to a great extent, we are seeing a lot of money going into paying of salaries.We did not go into devolution to create a new bourgeois within the counties. We are seeing an emergence of another class of Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and chief officers – an emergence of a new upper class within the counties. That was not the intention of devolution."
}