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{
    "id": 705638,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/705638/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me an opportunity to comment on this very important Bill. County assemblies have been working without laws. They have been operating like a plane without instruments. This is to the extent that they borrow without a legal structure. This is against the practices in the National Assembly and the Senate. This law is very good. I support it so that the assemblies may have their own board just like the way we have the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC). It is just a replica but at a different level. Devolution is very important. It is a reality in this country. County assemblies are one of the units of devolution. The work of a county assembly is to check the executive at the county level and the governor and his team. It is also a law making body for a local county. Therefore, it is similar in many ways to the National Assembly or the Senate. A county assembly has to be structured. It should have laws and employees who have to be treated in a certain manner – they have to comply with certain regulations. The situation at the county level - at the governor’s office - is a bit different from the situation of the Speaker’s Office. This is in terms of employees. Governors who are no longer serving may as well leave with many employees. This is because most of them are on contract basis. Some have a five-year contract. These employees have to be permanently employed and pensionable. Pension for MCAs has been a big issue. There are many former councillors in the defunct councils who have no pension. Most of them are languishing in poverty after many years of serving people earnestly. The MCAs and former councillors are very close to the people because they interact with them on a daily basis and participate in various matters on the ground. Therefore, the office supporting the structure of county assemblies is very important so that you have a clerk there and a service board. The issue of having a degree or not is a bit contentious. In Kenya, I do not believe that we have an assembly without sufficient degrees today. It is a moving point. Probably, we may have to reconsider it during the Third Reading after getting views from the county assemblies so that Kenyans can tell us more and what they think will make county assemblies serve them better. Otherwise, this is a very important law and it is long overdue. It should have been one of the first laws passed in 2013 so that county assemblies could operate with a proper structure which has been missing all these years. We really have to move with speed and pass this Bill. I believe a speaker of a county assembly will automatically become the chairman just as the Speaker of the National Assembly is. If you follow a similar structure, then it is easier for a county assembly to borrow from the National Assembly and the Senate so that they have a precedent to work on and is easier to relate. Of course, you cannot have this board, these employees and a structure which is not coordinated and synchronized in the whole country. Therefore, Sarah Serem and her The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}