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{
    "id": 698591,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/698591/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 214,
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    "content": "start explaining. This House needs to sit down and craft a formula and start explaining to Kenyans so that we are not seen as cry babies at the end of the term. We will be saying the problems we have had with the national Assembly is that we have had these Bills, they have not been listed for First Reading and we have had challenges here and there. It is important for us to find a formula of ensuring that some of those Bills can appear for First Reading. Once they appear and are listed for First Reading in the National Assembly, it means if they do not finalize those Bills, it will be failure on their part. As we speak, the Bills are neither here nor there and we are done with them, approved and passed them, they are in the National Assembly but they have never appeared on the order paper in the National Assembly. That is a point of concern that I think the leadership of both the Senate and the National Assembly should address. Moving forward, since we have never had serious conflicts between us and the National Assembly in the last six months, if the leadership in this House can persuade the leadership of the National Assembly to prioritize the business of the Senate, then we will have a better account of ourselves with regard to legislation once that is captured. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other component would be the representation aspect. I want to laud the Senators for doing a good job in terms of representing our counties. We only need to engage a little more in ensuring we are forthright and ruthless in executing and protecting the interests of counties even if those interests are threatened by internal characters. The greatest assault on devolution today is where the county governors, county executives and county assemblies are the ones undermining devolution. The concept of devolution was crafted to ensure power and resources go to the grassroots. If you look at the Fourth Schedule in terms of classification of functions, you could identify that drafters of the Constitution – the exciting thing is that a number of Members of this House were key players in the drafting of that Constitution; yourself, the Attorney-General emeritus and the various Members of this House. One of the reasons why the functions under the Fourth Schedule were allocated to county governments were some of those critical functions that affect the lives of wananchi on a day to day basis; local infrastructure, roads, water and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE). These are small things the county governments were given but they have huge impacts. If you go to counties - I will give the example of ECDE in my county - the county government budgeted for employment of two ECDE teachers in each of the 600 ECDE centers. Until now, they have only employed one ECDE teacher per center on contract basis yet the amount of resources in the budget was to employ two ECDE teachers per centre on permanent basis. That is a failure. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the county government allocated resources to build ECDE centres in each of the 600 centres in our counties. As at now, only less than 50 have been completed yet resources are no longer within the county coffers. The level of corruption in our counties is discouraging. As we wind up our term and go into the last leg, we need to focus on ensuring that we have something on our score card when we move to the next election to persuade Kenyans that this is an institution that should continue in terms of serving the interests of Kenyans. 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"
}