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    "id": 699502,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/699502/?format=api",
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    "content": "residents of that county will hear when they see some of the reports of this House, being a House of records, is that some counties have grown their revenue collection fivefold by simply adapting the use of ICT in revenue collection. You then wonder what it is that stops a governor who truly believes that devolution is for service to the people and not an avenue to pilferage public property and make yourself rich. What will make such an individual not to adopt this system? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there are many living examples around us. As we move towards the end of this first round of county governments, I think it will be important that we urge county residents to ask their governors for their ICT successes. Of late, it has been said that when you look at the things that ICT has done in this world, then you realise that for sure it is a game changer. They say that the biggest hotel today in the world is a company called AB & B but it has no single hotel property. The biggest taxi company in the world is Uber but they do not have a single vehicle. That is the magic of ICT. Then, you wonder what people are waiting for. Why can we not adopt some of the recommendations that are being made through such reports? The other day, my Committee had a discussion and we said that we need to question county governments on their budgetary allocations to ICT. We are really worried and we feel that our story is not being heard properly. In many counties,you realise that among the items with the least budgetary allocation is the ICT segment.Yet, they do not realise that the more you invest in this sector the more you are likely to get a breakthrough even in terms of revenue collection. By accessing internet services,that little boy or girl in the dusty villages of my county of Kericho can get as much information as a girl growing up in California which is the tech city of the world. This is because through ICT, you can access as much information as possible. The little child will then have an equal chance of succeeding as those growing up in the “first worlds” of this country. It is my hope and desire that people will realise how useful it can be if we leverage on the use of ICT and use it even in our daily operations in county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I had the privilege of travelling with my Committee to Japan for a period of one week. We went to study a myriad of issues. While learning and taking notes, I could not help but imagine how we could localize some of the solutions that I saw. Part of the problems that we keep seeing every day in our county governments can be avoided. In the area of disaster management, for example, I know this is a challenge that most counties face each day. You may have a sick person but you cannot even access the many ambulances that counties parade as one of their achievements. It is because you have to know the chief who has to call so-and-so to call the CEC in charge of health for them to release an ambulance to rescue a patient. By the time you do this, maybe the person will have passed on. If you leverage on ICT such that you get to know each resident of a county and give them a unique code upon whose activation you can know the closest ambulance to them and how quickly it can get to them. Insecurity is a challenge even to the country let alone counties. For example, it is only Nairobi and Mombasa that were wired under that national programme of installation of CCTVs. What about the other 45 counties? What is it that you are prioritizing to ensure that security is improved? We were challenged that if we wanted to know how 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"
}