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{
    "id": 734177,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/734177/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 229,
        "legal_name": "Mutahi Kagwe",
        "slug": "mutahi-kagwe"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, you will agree with me that as a matter of fact, what Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale is asking me to clarify is exactly what I have said. I said that if you go to the villages, they will ask what you do in this House. Part of the failure of the current Senate is that we have not spent sufficient resources in civic education to make our people aware of what this House does particularly on matters of resource allocation. I blame the Ministry of Devolution and Planning. For the benefit of my colleague as I clarify, if you remember, I said that if he goes to Kakamega County, an MCA will be talking about the money that they have given to construct a road. The governor will have put up notices saying how he has done “x”, “y” and “z”, while as a matter of fact, the resources to do all those things, whether by the MCA or the governor, were allocated by the Senate and specifically fought for by the Senator of that county. That is precisely what I was talking about. One of the other failures that we have experienced as a House is when we were denied sufficient funding to create effective over sighting. One of the accusations Senators get in the counties is that we are not doing enough oversight as far as the expenditures are concerned. We have just been debating the audit report and we can see that we cannot even exhaust the issues that have arisen as a result of corruption in various counties. In order for us to be effective in over sighting, we must have the resources allocated to the Senate offices. Part of the reason there are issues of oversight in the counties is because many counties continue to use analogue-based systems. There is no better equalizer and no better fighter against corruption than technology. We have seen it in Nyeri County where collection of funds through a mobile based system produced three times more money than what they were collecting before. This has been across the board. The minute you have direct engagements, people become corrupt and they start printing their own receipts. This is different when you tell people that we do not wish direct contact of an individual making a payment to the county government. The money can be taken directly to the bank, paid by Mpesa or through some technological manner and not direct engagements. As we go for recess, part of what we should do is to talk to our people and the county governments to infuse technology in all systems. In Nyeri County, there was a system where people would pay rates to officers sitting in offices. When that was done, the computer would be made to say that the money has already been paid. However, there was a serious gap between the amounts that were supposedly paid to the county government and the money that was in the bank. Somewhere along the line, the money paid was very high but the money in the bank was very low. It does not take Albert Einstein or any smart mathematician to realize where this money was going to. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}