Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 733139,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/733139/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Dido",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2749,
        "legal_name": "Col (Rtd) Ali Rasso Dido",
        "slug": "col-rtd-ali-rasso-dido"
    },
    "content": "It is a very contentious issue because many of us sitting in this House want accountability. We want lifestyle audits to be carried on the governors and people working in county governments. As Hon. Millie Odhiambo said, why is it that all of a sudden, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) is being seen to be a more efficient, effective and accessible, with its projects benefiting our people more as compared with the billions of shilling being poured to the counties annually? That is the big question that we must ask each other. In some regions, devolution has created small kingpins who unnecessarily engage the President and the Deputy President in acrimonious verbal exchanges in public. This is a sad development because the Treasury has already observed that county governments are not generating enough revenues, unlike when they were city councils, municipal councils, urban councils and county councils in the previous political dispensation. A lot of resources are being disbursed to county governments from the national Government and very little is being ploughed back. That tells us that county governments must do more even in terms of generating revenue. However, the citizenry will find it difficult to give more from their pockets because they can see the legacy the counties are wallowing in. For that reason, the Report is informative. It will be useful to the next Parliament as well as to the Executive in terms of how national resources should be used at both the centre and the periphery. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we do not have good hospitals under devolution. County governments are putting up additional buildings because people in authority want to give contracts to their brothers, sisters and cousins, so that they too, can align their pockets. With devolution, we do not have better roads. We still cry to the national Government to do something. We do not have any better educational infrastructure. Governors feel that they cannot plough back the money in terms of 10 or 20 per cent. Whereas we can put a lot of blame on the governors, we must appreciate that this is a good idea which has been implemented in a rush. Governors continue to demand resources for health, education and security among other services and yet the little resources they were given in the first and second years of devolution did not do a good job. That is why today we have a serious crisis in the health sector. Secondly, there must be a very elaborate structure at the national level to oversee the operations of county governments without necessarily the former entity undermining the later entities. At the end, these are public resources meant for the public good. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}