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{
    "id": 673746,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/673746/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 613,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "July 14, 2016 SENATE DEBATES 53 Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill by saying that the promise of devolution which is the cascading of resources, as we have said here consistently, has been so important. It is unfortunate that certain administrative functions of devolution are not working to the level that we expected. However, at least, that promise was there. The second aspect where this Bill comes in is the devolution of systems and operations which is key so that the cascading does not just end. A lot of information on the structuring happened up to the county level. However, at the sub-county and ward levels, all these considerations were not put in place. That is what makes it very important that the key offices of sub-county, ward and village administrators are given the power that they are expected to have. This is because they have a very key role to play. As has been mentioned in that paragraph, they are meant to coordinate the participation of communities and locations in governance at the local level. Madam Temporary Speaker, three years into devolution, there are certain parts of this country that have not heard what devolution is all about, at the lowest village level. This is why we have had a problem because civic education has not cascaded down as it ought to. Remember, we had a centralized system of Government for so long. So, all the time, people still have expectations from the central Government yet we have county governments that are independent. Some of these services can actually be cascaded at that particular level. Madam Temporary Speaker, some of the roles that are meant to be played by ward administrators, village administrators and sub-county administrators are very key. Some of them touch on issues like service delivery, empowering of the community, ensuring that the public service is provided at the lowest level, where possible, and ensuring coordination and public participation. Part of the problems of accountability that we have had at county governments level have to do with public participation and the citizens still cannot actively play their part. If they were empowered to know what questions to ask and how to ask them, that would be very key because they would be able to hold the county governments accountable to ensure resources are well utilised. Since we cannot directly get down to a villager, I am sure the sub-county administrator, ward administrator and the village administrator has a very important role to play. So, these administrative functions are very key and they need to be played too. Secondly, the Bill addresses the issue of qualifications, which is also very key. As Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo was moving this amendment Bill, he mentioned the bit about governors just giving jobs to their cronies, relatives and “this one and that one” and that really undermines the functions. I was listening to an audio tape that was correlating development and the problems with development. One of the issues that came out was the culture of nepotism because jobs are given to people who might not be qualified. So, the section on qualifications is very key. People should get jobs with the right qualifications so that they do what is expected to be done. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Bill goes ahead to address how this should be competitively done by the CPSB. That is very critical. It gives the minimum levels of education for the various positions and also qualifications in terms of having knowledge, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}