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{
    "id": 704679,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/704679/?format=api",
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    "content": "will be important to have a consultative committee which can meet twice a year to ensure that these fears and aspects are taken care of. It will consist of:- (1) a governor who shall be the chairperson and will be nominated by the Council of Governors (CoG); (2) the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry for the time being responsible for matters relating to statistics; (3) two CEC members responsible for statistics matters and shall be nominated by the Council of Governors (CoG); and (4) five other members appointed by the Cabinet Secretary (CS) to represent the bodies for the time, being recognised by the Government as representing the private sector, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions, public universities and the national coordination agency for planning and development. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when one looks at this Bill, it has many structures. As a nation, I believe we should be guided by our data and policies in order to make decisions on governance at the national and county levels. One may ask what the role of this committee is. We need to develop strategies which will ensure uniform standards, policies and methodologies, amongst the various officers who will be collecting information across all the counties. At the national level, it is important that we have uniform standard. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, since this is a devolved function, you could find that some counties are already doing it. We want uniformity in all our counties so that there is a threshold of data collected so that there is no much discrepancy. Once the Bill is passed, it will be important for all the counties to have these offices. At the national level, we have been doing it through the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. Therefore, they can share with the county governments on some of the best practices that they already have in place. Secondly, the committee will examine and make recommendations on the formulation and implementation of statistical programmes of the various offices of counties’ statisticians on an annual basis. It will be a time to review some of the successes that they have made in their respective counties. It is one of the areas that are not static. I am sure they always come up with new methods and success stories and how to improve the collection of data in our counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thirdly, it will develop a framework for coordination within the county statistical system. It is important to have a framework for coordination in the counties. It will also coordinate the harmonisation of national and county policy and methodologies relating to the statistics. It is important that the national Government appreciates devolution and what was envisaged in the Constitution. It is time we became open minded and accepted them because they were thought out. They are important and need to be implemented in our counties. We need to harmonize the national policy - because we have a policy on statistics - and the county policies. It is not enough to say that it is not viable but to get into it and implement it. The two policies should be harmonised to ensure that this works in the counties. We have continued to experience a resistance to some of the functions that are expressly stated in the Constitution that are supposed to be devolved. However, some of 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"
}