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{
    "id": 701466,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/701466/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 308,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13119,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
        "slug": "agnes-zani"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I will try to use less time so that we can go to the other Motion. I remember with a lot of excitement sometime in August 2013 when we all had sub-committees that went to different counties and engaged directly with governors. At that time it was to look at the functions that had been devolved. There were appeals from 29 counties about devolved functions that they felt should have been devolved to the counties. They are clearly stipulated in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. At that time, there was a lot of interest across various areas. Most Senators looked at areas to do with libraries, agriculture and roads. The other day I was going through documents in my office and I came across that report. One, I was impressed about the work that we did. Second, I thought about how far we had gone and what happened to that initiative. At that point, we wanted to ensure all these functions get devolved to the various counties. I also want to acknowledge that at that time when we went round, we had the assistance of various clerks. At this moment, I would like to mention, in a specific and important way, Ms. Joyce Aluoch, who rested last week and whose fundraising we will be going to shortly. She was one of the clerks who participated in this process and gave a lot of energy towards getting this report out. Unfortunately, the Attorney-General at that time said that he could not gazette the transfer of these functions. That was quite disappointing for us because we had expected the process to be straightforward. There had been a lot of hope exhibited by the governors that we would be able to give them all the 14 functions and ensure that they had been devolved appropriately to them. That did not happen and it became a legal process. Afterwards, an order was put to the Attorney-General that he cannot question the decision of the Senate, which was an important thing. Every time the Senate has had a situation which has ended up in a legal process and the Judiciary coming in, it has stalled the work. Almost towards the end of our term in the Senate, we still have a situation that all the functions have not been fully devolved to the counties. Even more dangerous, the counties are also coming up with other functions that have not been devolved to them and taking a lot of the resources that are being sent to the counties to those particular functions. They are, therefore, deviating from the key functions that they should concentrate on. 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"
}