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{
    "id": 748271,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/748271/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "confusing on how the supply of grain is being managed into this country. I would have thought that we cannot always be waiting to be surprised. We should have an adequate provision for the strategic grain reserve which shall be moved out each time when certain levels of prices are reached. Price reflects scarcity and we do not have to wait until you see people and livestock dying. You can release this well in advance and if it is inadequate, you can place orders well in advance so that our people are not dehumanised the way it is done, that our people do not lose the only wealth they might have in livestock. You can imagine what it means being sent back to zero every year and how difficult it is to manage families and, therefore, become a part of progressive Kenya. I would like to see a lot more drought preparedness. I do not see that being allocated adequately. I think there is room for our national Government to think internally on the efficiency in which they allocate resources. There are resources that go to the county governments. I would have preferred that we go along with the compromise towards increased allocation as suggested by the Senate. I think we are going through a transit period where we are facing elections. In any case, these monies are not likely to be released anywhere during the cycle of these elections. These are funds that will be coming in the course of next year. I agree that there have been a lot of apparent surpluses within counties as evidenced by the amount of waste that people have observed and others have examined including the Auditor-General. Let us differentiate this management by this first round of managers who are in there and let us be clear that it is not those individuals who are at fault. It is the system that is at fault and individuals are not to blame. But the resources that are needed for the county governments and for devolution are indeed important and that is what really goes down to the people. You will find that the only thing that has happened is devolution in counties that were far from the center in this country. Health facilities may be struggling. The supply of medication may have only improved modestly or perhaps not at all, but the amount of inflow of resources in these geographic areas of this country have made a difference. If we are to measure some of these by the amount of construction that goes on, by the flow of resources with business community and others into the banking sector, you will find that indeed devolution has a certain way of providing resources that are circulating in areas that are far away from Nairobi. Why is it that in and around Nairobi, most of this wealth is concentrated? It is because they had easy access to it, access to contracts and the reasons are not in any way ethnic, the way I see it. They are class issues; that you have access to resources. You take advantage of it. It does not matter where your mother brought you into this world from. What we have to remember is, if we move these resources around the country, the impact on this country is going to be significant as determined by the people themselves in areas where these resources will go. None of these arguments should lead us in any way to question the need for growing allocation of resources in the rural areas. This is going to be a permanent feature of this economy. I doubt if we ever went to a referendum, we would be able to recentralise resources. Therefore, the earlier we wake up and deal with systems improvement and recognise that we do not have the monopoly – not the national Government or Parliament – to have the optimal allocation of resources, the better. It is just a shared responsibility and something good can come out of there. However, things do not always come out good. Because they do not always come out good, we must look carefully, and separately, at the issue of misuse of resources and manifestations of misuse of those resources, both within the county governments and the national Government. It must become an objective of what we do to address the issue of misuse of 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."
}