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{
    "id": 674833,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/674833/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2408,
        "legal_name": "James Onyango Oyoo",
        "slug": "james-onyango-oyoo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for finally giving me an opportunity to at least contribute to this important Bill although a lot of the areas I wanted to cover have been sufficiently covered by my colleagues. This is an opportune moment for this House to legislate and ensure that this Bill becomes law. The county governments are a creation of our new constitutional dispensation but the people came to terms with the low calibre of MCAs they have elected rather too late. Most of the MCAs thought that they were going to be councillors. It is now dawning on them that they are our colleagues – Member of Parliament in the county governments. They have the power to legislate but the parameters to govern their legislative power must be done for them, which will be guided by this Bill once it becomes law. The governors need a lot of supervision but with MCAs who are unaware of their rights and roles, in terms of summoning County Executive Committee members to answer to audit queries, that function has suffered. I believe that this law will go a long way to guide the MCAs on how they ought to discharge their duties as well as on the requirements for legislation. We have MCAs who are not aware of the parameters or legislative duties they are supposed to discharge. For a long time, most of them thought that they were supposed to oversee Members of Parliament – a matter which caused a lot of friction in the county assemblies and in the various constituencies. Most of the MCAs are local council materials. Once this law comes in to being, I will want the governors to immediately ensure that instead of spending so much money taking the MCAs for expensive retreats outside the country, a replica of the school of governance in Kenya should be done. The governors can pool resources and establish a training institute like school of governors, where MCAs can be trained by very qualified resource persons from within and without with immediate effect, so that they know what is required of them. Members of County Assemblies should also be willing to learn. Although many of them are not willing to learn, we have serious debaters in the county assemblies. Just like in Parliament, we have MCAs who may not be lawyers or PhD holders but who are serious debaters. Some of them have taken Bills to their assemblies, and those Bills have successfully been debated and passed. I am grateful that even the county governments have what it takes. The only thing that we need is the law. In passing this law, we need to look at it, read it and ensure that it is in tandem with the requirements of the county assemblies and more so the legislations they require to bring them in line with the National Assembly. That will ensure that 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."
}