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{
    "id": 674155,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/674155/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 399,
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    "content": "to issues of public participation. During the budget making process, these administrators are flower boys and girls. Their jobs are to make sure that there is a public address system, a tent, flowers and sodas in those venues. There is really nothing significant that they do that matches the qualifications, pay and nature of persons appointed to these roles. We need to revisit the roles of administrators. Another role says service delivery. What service does a sub-county administrator deliver? Further, it says that the sub-county administrator is responsible for the County Public Service Board (CPSB) at that level. Have we devolved the CPSB? Is there anybody that they supervise? If it is a sub-county administrator, maybe he or she only supervises the ward administrator. If it is the ward administrator, maybe he or she only supervises the village administrator. However, there is no staff compliment. We have given people jobs but not resources. We have given them very ambiguous roles. This is the same way that the Senate has been treated. You have a powerful body that is anchored in the Constitution but its functions and roles are stated so broadly yet there is no attendant, resource or structure. It is not seen as an institution. We are looking at these people as individuals rather than institutions. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in my view, we should pay some attention to the roles of administrators and make their roles very specific. They need to be given very clear deliverables and defined outcomes of their actions in such a way that they are not used by governors as youth wingers. Some of these people are the ones who carry the red carpet and do protocol duties at the county level. Protocol simply means any other job meant to pamper the king. We are reducing people whom we say should be degree and diploma holders to people who are court justus because their roles are not specific or tightly defined. Article 176 (2) of the Constitution talks about decentralization of services. We tend to forget that the Constitution is clear that county governments shall ensure that they decentralize their functions and services to the extent that is efficient and practicable. To many people’s understanding, Article 176 (2) can be achieved through the sub-county and ward administrators. The sub-county administrator can be the head of decentralized functions at the sub-county level and not just an office where people sign visitors’ book. There should be decentralized functions where a broad range of services and functions of a county government can be obtained and accessed at the sub-county level. The ward administrator shall be that one-stop where all functions of a county can be accessed. When we look at Article 176 (2) of the Constitution, we need to think about the sub-county and ward administrators and see them as agents and instruments of achieving this. A single governor will not bring services to everybody. He will be sitting at the county headquarters. He should empower and entrust his administrators to be the agents through which decentralization of functions can be achieved. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I wish to bring to the attention of Members and the Mover of this Bill on the issue of the relationship between the county secretaries and the County Public Service Boards (CPSBs). The County Governments Act is an important Act for those of us whose constitutional duty is to defend and protect devolution. In the County Governments Act, there is a position called County Secretary. The Act states that the County Public Service shall be headed by the County Secretary. The same Act goes 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"
}