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{
    "id": 607177,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/607177/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
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    "content": "elections and so on, and so forth. All this discussion is around who has stolen more from the money that is being allocated to the counties. The office that is going to assist us on matters of accountability is the Auditor- General’s Office. However, at the moment, this office is not giving us the confidence that we need to indicate that they are capable to deal with matters of accountability in so far as county finances are concerned. But we must also be assisted by other sectors; we must be assisted by county assemblies. We must strengthen the county assemblies but for now, we have crippled the county assemblies completely. We have denied them the budget and their budget is being controlled by the Executives Department of Finance at the county level. The County Executives decide when they will transfer money to the county assemblies or not. This is a condition that we can no longer live with. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we must also be assisted by the media. At the moment, as we are sitting here, there is a Governors’ Summit going on in Naivasha. Although we cannot see it, one media is supporting the Summit. The same media house has an interest in matters related to advertisement and communication with the counties. I request media houses to be careful not to insert this mentality that as long as they are going to get businesses from the counties, they will not report accurately on matters of accountability in so far as corruption is concerned. They must give us that assurance, because I have seen, over and again, a Senator goes to a particular place, say certain things that are related to that county on matters of accountability and the story is reduced to a small footnote because it is going to injure the relationship between that media house and the County Executive. We cannot continue like that! We must stand by accountability. The media is a public mechanism for us to share information with the public and all of us who are doing oversight. Therefore, we cannot gag it up. If it shall be that counties or those who manage money will be given space, then everybody here will be running around to say that Senators must also be given money so that they can control information and how it is going to be shared. We must not give an opportunity to our governors to pretend that they are massaging their egos so that they think they are doing well. How can you have such a conference without even one person to go and question or to give them a challenge about what they should do better or differently? It just becomes a place for them to clap for themselves and feel happy. We must have a proper conference in the near future that will discuss matters of devolution from different sectors so that we do not create this impression that devolution is only good if we support a sector that has money. We must be very cautious that we cannot accept a situation where we will say devolution is only good if we support the sector that is having money. Everybody now wants to be in good books with governors because they know you will make something small left, right and centre. But that is not the point; we must ensure that we have a plural system, a free environment where Kenyans can question their counties to ensure that we have maximum results. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support this Report and I believe that if this conversation started three months ago, things could be different at the counties."
}