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{
    "id": 703389,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/703389/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 216,
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    "content": "County Government financed wananchi to be moved from point “a” to “b” to present petitions because it was in support of its dissolution. I would have expected that to come from another quarter, but not the county government itself. The framers of the Constitution did not expect a county government to demand to be dissolved like in the case of Makueni County Government. Be that as it may, it is, probably, because of the seriousness of the situation as it were because even violence was experienced, people were being killed and so on. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the point I am making is that the Commission, having been appointed and given a verdict that this county government is rotten and should go, the President, in his wisdom, went ahead and differed substantially with the Commission’s recommendations. He said that he could not agree and he did not given any reasons for the position he took. That is why I support the amendment that in such a case, the President ought to have reported to the Senate that this is the recommendation of the Commission that I appointed. We would have deliberated on this and then made a decision. If it was negative as the Bill proposes, then the Senate would have recommended other measures and said okay, it is not dissolution, but this is what should be done. Therefore, the Senate would have played its rightful constitutional role in ensuring that County Government of Makueni, or any other county government, for that matter, has now played a role. As it is now, if you are asked by mwananchi from Makueni County, why the President failed to agree with the Commission’s recommendation, he will tell you he does not know. He will then tell you that you are the Senator and the Constitution allows you to get involved in the welfare of that county. Hon. Members who have contributed to this important Bill have referred to impeachment of governors. This is one area where this Senate, either through amendments of the existing law, must think carefully about how we should go ahead in impeaching or not impeaching a governor. I remember the last time when there was a Motion to impeach the Governor for Nyeri County, the House resolved to hear the complaints and take a decision. It was unanimous; the House resolved that the Governor for Nyeri County could not be impeached reason being we, as a House, were unable to have enough evidence to condemn him into impeachment. We have had a similar case of Kericho County where, again, a Committee of this House felt that the Governor did not deserve to be impeached because the threshold that had been set was too high. In the case of the County Government of Makueni, the Committee that I chaired made certain recommendations. Currently, there is an issue of a plot that was bought. This matter came to the Committee and we did not acquit anyone on the matter that was at hand. It rather recommended that further investigations be made in order to establish the truth. This is because you will accept or agree that a Committee handling this matter in two days will not have enough time to probe unless we have investigators to go into the field. This House will need to sit down and look at the impeachment law, so that we set the perimeters and not look like those county council leaders where every now and then they would throw chairs to each other. At the same time, I support Sen. Hassan’s sentiments that there is so much corruption in Kenya today in the national Government which has been devolved to county governments. For that, even impeachment will not be enough. Why is it that in 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"
}