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{
    "id": 759517,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/759517/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "use of funds by governors will be on and indeed, a lot would have passed them. We have had serious cases in counties, for example, in the last Parliament, some MCAs from western Kenya came here and asked how the Senate could help them on certain sensitive issues. In one of the cases, a county governor was paying his wife and his running mate’s wife salaries and allowances. A new MCA will have no idea how to deal with such a matter. Therefore, this House should seriously consider that we travel to such areas, invite the Members of the public and MCAs, hold sittings, listen to the people, collect their views and give direction. Such sittings will also be forums that the Senate can use to demystify itself so that people get to show the role it plays according to Article 96 of the Constitution. If I may comment on some of the things that were said before I was given the Floor, it is indeed, a fact that the role of the Senate is not fully appreciated in the counties. It is not unheard of that once a Senator visits a county at the end of two or three years, a member of the public tells them that: I still do not understand what role you play as a Senator. We have had to battle this ourselves in the counties during campaigns. As you can see, most of the Senators in the Eleventh Parliament did not make it back to the Twelfth Parliament. They could not be re-elected. The reason is not because they did not perform the roles of legislation, representation and oversight assigned to them as mandated by the Constitution, but it is because in the eyes and minds of the public, they juxtapose what a Senator does with what other elected leaders do. I have been asked many times when I visit my county, Kiambu why I have not been seen commissioning construction of tarmac roads like the governor who comes here to start a new water project whereas I as Senator has no project. All these questions are relevant because they are in the minds of the people. It is the role of this House to make sure that we have visited the counties since they cannot all visit us. Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the important issues that we should raise in this House is that, since the inception of the Senate by the 2010 Constitution, a vital stage to carry out robust civic education was missed. This would have enabled the citizenry to understand the various roles of various legislators. Because of that vacuum that was created then and the failure to fill it up to now, I can authoritatively say that if that trend persists, the Senators in the Twelfth Parliament will suffer the same fate after five years like most of the Senators of the Eleventh Parliament did. I want to correct something, my colleague, Sen. Mwaura said that this House is idle and it is the House of wazee. Sometimes that is what the members of the public think. Therefore, it is the role of this House to make sure that we demystify and purge this perception and leave it by doing what this House had intended by going to the county. Secondly, as we went through induction last week, one of the key issues that consistently came out was that most of the legislation that was proposed and debated in this House and forwarded to our sister House for concurrence never saw the light of day. It is important as we seek to approve the calendar, we recognise that it needs to be formulated, implemented and executed with a view to ensuring that there is total efficiency. When legislation is proposed in this House and debated, it should be followed up to its logical conclusion. On this issue, it is important that the administrative offices -"
}