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{
    "id": 736899,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/736899/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 84,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "who are basically Principal Secretaries (PSs), then you have directors down there and then deputy directors. We have taken to the county governments a whole bureaucracy that gobbles a lot of the money that should go into service provision. How I wish that the Senators would have looked at this and say that for the county governments, this is the kind of establishment you expect; that you will have the governor up there, then the deputy governor and the CECs but before the CECs, we will have this lean structure. As we speak, you cannot have 70 per cent of the monies going to employment. Thirty percent cannot develop the counties. This is the Senate’s role. It should come up with laws in the various areas. If it is health, there should be laws that provide benchmarks on how to run the health portfolio. If it is agriculture, there should be laws that benchmark to all the governors how they expect the counties to run the agriculture portfolio. If it is sports, let us have laws done by the Senate. This is because the Senate has forgotten. That is why you see them fighting about roles every now and then because as we speak today, the Senate has not given even a single law on how the county governments should run. It has not given even a single devolved function. Zero! That is why we are failing. It is not our role as the National Assembly. The reason why the National Assembly has not summoned any governor is because we do not think that is our role. It is the role of the Senate. However, they cannot fail and then keep on every time fighting about money bills and yet when these monies go down, they are not being used well. We are basically chasing the wind yet we know where the problem is. So, as we pass this Bill, I hope that the Senators, when they come back after 8th August, can then sit back and understand their role; that their role is to midwife devolution and ensure that the county governments have enough laws and policies that will help them run. For example, I have heard about the leasing of medical equipment. That is okay, but how long are you leasing. Leasing happens because there is a plan that has been put to ensure that after 10 years, we move away from leasing and we have our own medical equipment. However, I do not see a plan. I have not seen a plan from the Senate or the national Government that says that after this long, these county governments will have these properties as theirs or this is the plan to ensure that we have enough of them in the country so that we stop leasing. This is because leasing means taking the money outside there to the persons who have brought the items. You do not know how long it is going to happen and without having proper technology and information transfer for this equipment, we will keep leasing them forever. This is because we do not have a framework for doing so. There are things that happen in this country – and that is why we fought for devolution – that need to be sorted out without much ado. Talking about health, as we speak, we have people called community health workers. In Luo we call them Nyamrerwa . These are the people who run the health sector in this country. However, as we speak, you will find governors meeting them for campaigns but they do not get any pay, whether allowances or salaries, and the Senate is there and it knows that these people are necessary but there is nothing that has been made to ensure that they are employed. We have the so called village elders. They play a very important role in the running of the county governments but as we speak, the governors are meeting them and giving them Kshs1,000 each, which is temporary. How I wish the Senate could come up with a law that helps to deal with this kind of a matter to ensure that the county governments are run the right way. I want to talk about the role of the national Government in devolution. The national Government must, first of all, realise that it is not in competition. They will never be in competition with the county governments. This is because we only have one Government of Kenya and they must ensure that the county governments are run the right way. So, this idea that 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."
}