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{
    "id": 655352,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/655352/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 348,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "Constitutional architecture is dependent on a culture of cooperation and consultation, the better. Article 6 (2) of the Constitution is not in vain. It demands consultations, cooperation and mutual respect between the two levels of government. This is what should be encouraged. We need to see less confrontation, competition and conflict. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the money allocated to counties has been periodically increasing. The current amount is 30 per cent of the recent audited accounts of 2013/2014. However, we are behind schedule but whatever arithmetic used is still way beyond the minimum 15 per cent. This is what should be encouraged. As we think about possible constitutional review in the future, the one area we need to look into is whether we need to up the minimum allocation to counties from 15 per cent to another figure. We have had three financial areas of testing whether the monies given to counties are enough. The county governments require more finances. The kind of functions that they are assigned require resources much more than we are giving them at the moment. It will be important in future to ensure that we do not leave the minimum allocations to the whims of the successive governments. There can be a government that honours that and another that may not honour or if it honours, they stick to it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we hope that through the review process, there will be consensus on how much a county government requires. Surprisingly, in older democracies like Australia, India and others, the issue of how much money is devolved is a controversial issue. So, we should not be surprised because ours is less than three years old. Countries like Australia which have had devolved governments for 175 years still contest how much the regions should get from the centre. This debate will not go away even with the proposed constitutional amendments. Therefore, there is need for better communication between the agencies and the two levels of governments. This will ensure that the budget making process and the sharing of the resources is equitable and is done in a way that every part of the country is taken care of. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, devolution has changed our country for good. We are witnessing great things that are happening because of devolution. Where there was no access to health services in the rural areas there are health services. We are seeing tarmacked roads in parts of this country where there were none, never mind the kind of technology used. Some of them are appropriate technologies. We have heard about the pro-base technology and others, but it does not matter. A road that may not last for more than 10 years is worth having than not having a road at all. We have seen tremendous improvement of the infrastructure. Rural economies are rising up again, after many years of neglect, because of devolution. Therefore, we must stand to defend the silver bullet that has helped us kill exclusion, division and marginalization. This is the game- changer and the card that Kenya is left with to make sure that every part of this country feels secure and attended to. For many years we have remained exclusive. We have made certain parts of our country feel ostracized from the society. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one of the reasons our country continues to have tension, mistrust and disaffection is because of exclusion, especially in resource allocation. Before devolution, technocrats in Nairobi would sit and decide which districts would get which amount of money for water. We ended up having district “X,” which had a lot of water, getting more money for water than district “Y” which had serious water shortages. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}