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{
    "id": 705655,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/705655/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "capacity of county assemblies, then this devolution will be doomed in future. There has to be a check in how county governments are working. If we do not do that, we will keep complaining and the issues of corruption will be entrenched. There will be no checks and the executives of county governments are going to run amok if this is not done particularly if we do not move fast like in our current situation. The future of devolution is wholly dependent on the strength of county assemblies. We are currently complaining that there is a big loss in terms of wastage and money being squandered. That is happening because county assemblies are not worth what they are at the moment. I have difficulties when people sympathise with the kind of people who are supposed to constitute the board. This board needs to be constituted by very firm people who have gone to school. We should not be in a situation where we sympathise with those who have not gone to school. In my view, this is not right. County governments have all manner of resources. Our rural economies are wholly dependent on what county governments do. If we cannot push some people with good capacity towards that direction, we will not be very useful as a country. That is why I do not sympathise with people who refuse when we say that we need experience and people who have gone to school. Sometimes school is not just the issue of degrees. Schools normally play one critical role in opening the world view of people. We need people in the devolved governments who have an idea of what happens in the rest of the world and whose world views are a little bit wider than what we see at the moment. That is why I do not sympathise with this idea that we need young people who have not gone to school. Diversity is necessary, but it cannot be the justification for not going to school with regard to the kind of qualifications that are required and that we need to sympathise with. Finally, I wanted to state this point for purposes of records in this House: We are overdoing things for county governments against the law. Our Constitution requires county governments to legislate for themselves. When we do them, we are making the county governments to operate like our National Assembly. Some of them would have been better than our Parliament, but when we restrict them to follow what we are doing, we limit them in terms of how they are supposed to do things. The 47 county governments plus the national Government are distinct. County assemblies have a clear role of legislation. They need to legislate on these things that we are trying to do for them. My county government, I believe, can do much better if it was given a chance. It can come up with a better arrangement beyond what we are recommending or what the Senate has brought around if they had the chance, the right people and the right minds. I want to bring out this idea for purposes of record that we are over-legislating and that counties cannot do anything because their laws are subordinate to national legislation. It will not be fair for this country to come up with a national legislation that restricts them. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}