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{
    "id": 734167,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/734167/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 268,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, the idea of recess is for us to go and do a number of things. One of them is to acquaint ourselves a little bit more with what is happening on the ground, in the counties. The second one is to familiarize ourselves with the kind of projects that the counties are undertaking. It is very difficult for us to do so while we are in the House. One of the failures of this Senate – and we must be bold enough to criticize ourselves as well as critique others – is that we have been shortchanged in terms of civic education, to tell wananchi what the purpose of the Senate is. If you ask the Senators, who are seeking re-election as Senators or to any other position for that matter, including the many of us in this House who are seeking positions of governors, you will find that the biggest question that is always asked by wananchi is: ‘where have you been and what have you done for this county? When the Senator for Kiambu comes to this House and debates in a fine manner on matters of legislation, like he has done, somewhere in Wangige in the slums of Kiambu, people have no idea what he is doing in the House. When the Senator for Kakamega goes to seek for votes from the residents of Kakamega to become governor, the issue still arises. He is asked: ‘what do you do in the Senate?’ This is because the understanding of somebody in the village is that the work of anybody elected is to make sure that roads are murramed. Where the money for murraming comes from is a secondary issue that neither the electorate is told of nor anybody asks. Nobody wants to know where the money comes from. As far as they are concerned, the Member of the County Assembly (MCA) of that area is the one who got the money to repair the murram road. The fact that we sat here as we did yesterday, negotiating on matters of the Division of Revenue Bill, discussing how much money will go to the counties is assumed to be a matter of course. It is assumed that whether the Senate was there or not, the money would still go to the counties. Never mind that at this particular time, the proposed amount by the Senate to go to the counties is 37.1 per cent. The Constitution simply talks of an allocation of 15 per cent of the money of the national Government money as represented in the last audited reports. We are now sending the counties 37 per cent if we have got anything to do with it. That is the work of the Senate."
}