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{
    "id": 666387,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/666387/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "country which had not benefited from the fruits of independence to do so. This is the fourth time this House is debating the County Allocation of Revenue Bill. Like the Leader of the Majority Party has said, it is a good point to ask: “How much have the monies that we have taken to the counties done to improve the livelihoods of our people?” We cannot be a mere conveyor belt discussing billions of shillings going into the counties and when we question what those monies are doing in the counties, then people say that we are fighting devolution. Nobody is fighting devolution. All we are saying is that the intention of devolution is to improve the standards of living of our people. I am very disappointed at what we see in the countryside. We see people whose fortunes have suddenly changed. The other day, I was reading in the newspapers a governor daring his opponents to go and he will give them money for campaigns. Yet, I am told that for that governor to campaign in the last election, he had to depend on Harambees . Where is all this sudden wealth coming from? It is very disappointing the way people are living large in the counties. As has been said by my colleagues in this House, the Office of the Auditor-General and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) need to tell us whether Kenyans are getting value for money with the billions that we are transferring to the counties. The other day, I attended a function in Bungoma at the invitation of my friend, Hon. Athanas Wafula Wamunyinyi. As we were coming, we could not even move because the road was blocked. The governor was travelling in the opposite direction in a convoy of over 30 cars. Sirens were blaring. Was this really the intention of devolution? I beg to differ. I do not think that devolution was meant to make people live large. I do not think that devolution was meant for us to start having medieval kings in the counties. I believe devolution was meant to improve the lives of our people. Devolution was meant to take water where there was none. In my view, devolution was meant to help those bright needy students who cannot afford school fees to be able to do so. Devolution was meant to enable us to have medicine in our hospitals and dispensaries. Devolution was meant to open up roads where there have been none over the years. But I do not think it was meant to create medieval kings back in the counties. So, I believe that part of the reason why all that is happening – and we must accept that – is because there is a lot of lack of capacity in the counties as we speak. As we are now, I do not know if most county assembly members are aware that their role, other than making laws which most of them hardly do, also includes oversight and representation. But do they really have the capacity to oversight? Do they even understand the difference between oversight, supervision and micro-management? I think this is where the problem is. I support fully that county assembly members must now be given capacity by us insisting through a law here that they must have certain minimum educational levels. That is because you do not throw billions of shillings into the hands of people who cannot even have a basic assessment. In high school, we were told that to count from one to a million, you will probably take 20 days. That means you will take 60 years to count one to a billion. Do those people even understand that, that is how much money is going to those counties? As we give these monies, I think we need to strengthen our laws and institutions so that devolution can achieve what it was intended to do. I have seen counties that are going to receive over Kshs10 billion. Kshs10 billion is not pocket change. I do not think that devolution was meant to give governors longer and longer convoys of cars. I think devolution was meant to impact on the lives of our people. This should concern us all. The other day, I was reading the wealth report for East Africa. It was saying that the total number of dollar millionaires in our country is twice more the total number of dollar millionaires in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi combined. That may be 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."
}