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{
    "id": 704684,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/704684/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It does not surprise me at all that the officials at national Government would want this matter to lay squarely in their docket. A similar instance rose yesterday when we were discussing the Physical Planning Bill. There is a tendency of the national Government officials to want to usurp and claw back the functions of the county government. To show the importance of what Sen. Lesuuda has come up with, I will send a book called “ Exploring Kenya’s Inequality: Pulling Apart or Pulling Together. ” It is written by a gentleman called Irungu Houghton of Society of International Development in conjunction with Kenya Bureau of Statistics. The information on Makueni County that is contained in this book is information that every Governor and Senator should hold. With regard to the level of education, they will tell you ward by ward. The houses with iron sheets they have it ward by ward in this book. Percentage of people who have secondary education and primary education; ward by ward. Places with underground rivers so that you can determine what to do like having boreholes; ward by ward. They also have captured inequalities ward by ward. So, I would encourage even my colleagues, particularly those ones who are aspiring to become governors, to get a hold of this information. At some time when you are campaigning, your manifesto should have information. How much more would it benefit if this information was being collected, not by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), but it was in the hands of governors? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, at the time that Mr. Irungu sent this to me, he was unable to access governors. He was also unable to have a meeting with county executives just to present this material because they cannot appreciate the value of looking at data and specifics. Where the Constitution recognizes – I have said this before and sometimes I have even rubbed people the wrong way – that just the same way all counties are not equal, wards cannot be equal. Therefore, you cannot treat every ward in your county equal. You cannot give every ward an equal budget as if all of them are the same level. However, with the collection of statistics as Sen. Lesuuda has proposed, it would be easy to plan, communicate and public participation will make sense. Then you can give this information to the public that statistics ”x” are what applies. Recently, to echo the sentiments of why this is important, the court of appeal ruled on the statistics on census collected from counties in North Eastern. It said that the collection of data was wrong, but we have used that data share revenue. We cannot turn back the clock or ask for a refund, yet that information is here at the national level. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has not apologised to anybody. So what do you do hat somebody has been planning somewhere based on wrong information? If counties could have an officer who could go and ensure this data is correct without having to come to Nairobi - that was the purpose of devolution. Why should you have one office called the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics which is a big office in Nairobi here where you have to come and look for something about a ward? For example, where I come from is called Kithungu or Kitundu, you have to come to Nairobi. It is ridiculous. That is why this information is important. 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"
}