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{
    "id": 733124,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/733124/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 236,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gikaria",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2489,
        "legal_name": "David Gikaria",
        "slug": "david-gikaria"
    },
    "content": "I have been trying to go through the Standing Orders of this House to see where we draw our mandate as Parliament to form a Committee. We need to change the Standing Orders so that it gives us a mandate as Parliament to form a Committee of any nature like this one on devolution. If you look at the limitation of mandate of a committee under Standing Order No.197, it also speaks about where the Committee draws its mandate from. Where will this Devolution Committee draw its mandate from? It is very specific under the limitations of mandate of a Committee. I do not want to belabour the point by reading because it is very clear under Standing Order No.197 on where the Committee would need to draw its relevant mandate. Because I am also the Vice-Chairman of the CIOC, how do we as a Committee implement this? Do we say that we have amended the Constitution through a report of a Committee? How will we go about it? Where will the Committee draw its mandate? Who will we call? This is not acceptable. Standing Order No.218 (1) on Committee to be limited to mandate says: “Except as expressly provided for in these Standing Orders, no matter shall be referred to a select committee except on a Motion approved after notice given.” This notice has not been given. We are just deliberating on issues that we cannot implement. Let me draw your attention to the Report itself. The finding of the Committee under part (e) says that the current institution and legal framework was weak thereby hampering effective implementation of devolution. That is not true. We have a Senate. That Senate is supposed to do that work. It is not the work of the National Assembly to do that work. Those observations are unjustified. The finding under (f) says that the National Assembly has a duty to oversee devolution and ensure that the national Government—Article 96 of the Constitution shows that that is the role of the Senate. The National Assembly has no role at all. We have said this many times, not once. The CIOC has been unable to move anywhere on most of those motions and petitions which have been brought and approved by this House on issues of devolved function. We are at the mercy of each and every governor and what they want to do. I remember one of the petitions which was tabled by Hon. Ochieng, the Member of Parliament for Ugenya, regarding boda boda and reduction of the fees charged by the county governments. Some county governments said that they would not listen to us because they need to collect revenue. How can we as Parliament decide for the county how it will run its issues? The other one was that the resolution of the Council of Governors (CoG) be implemented without fail. There are some things which were brought forth by the CoG which cannot even be---I do not know whether the CoG is a constitutional committee. How do we then follow that? I will take you back to the Report on page 15, under the status of transfer and audit of assets, liabilities of the defunct local authorities. I had an opportunity to be a mayor of one of those local authorities. Up to date, there was a field which was a primary school. I keep on asking where the register that indicated that that field belonged to a school is. Up to date, we have not--- Look at the Land Registry. We do not have much. People took loans. I remember the Municipal Council of Nakuru had taken loans with Family Bank. When the county governments came into place, they said they would not pay. Those are some of the issues. Allow me to quickly point out the very last aspect of recommendation on the oversight functions on devolution vested on the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. 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."
}