Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 774288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "homes. It does not create a city. You then go on and find things like a “national school, a polytechnic, a stadium, and an airport.” How can you say that an airport is a criterion for having a city? If you go to Germany, Bonn which is the former capital city of the Federal Republic of Germany has no airport! Why? This is because Frankfurt is next door. For you to go to Bonn you land in Frankfurt and you go to Bonn. If you go to the former Czechoslovakia and want to go to Blaslaviain Slovakia, they have no airport. They use Vienna because it is next door. For example, there is a new airport in Nanyuki, does Meru need another airport? They can use Nanyuki. Why would we obligate cities to now go through mega projects to be conferred the status of a city? It says that we either have an airport/airstrip, theatre, a library service and an administration seat. All these are driven by the private sector. You cannot force anybody to come and put a financial hub in Bungoma or any part of the country if the market does not demand and support it. Yet, you can be a city because of your unique circumstances. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have other qualifications such as; “vocational institutions and a primary or high school.” Surely, how can a primary or high school help you to be called a city? These institutions are everywhere and the Government is no longer building serious schools in urban centres. They have left it to the private sector and it is profit and demand driven. Whoever has brought this Bill, I want to advise my colleagues across the floor. I saw the distinguished Senator for Nakuru looking very frightened and agitated when the last Bill met the fate it did. However, it is because of lack of consultations and proper coordination. These Bills are good for the country and for everybody. It does no harm at all for the side across the Floor to ask you as the Leader of this House to call a Kamukunji and we look through these Bills and see that one, our primary duty under Article 96 of the Constitution is to defend and protect counties and their governments. How do these Bills impact on counties and their governments? We sit together, talk and agree if that enhances or claws back devolution. Then we are able to move as a Senate team. I would hate to see this Senate divided on everything because we are a House of reason, reference, appeal; where reason overrides emotion. We want to see that the Government side does not embrace the arrogant attitude of saying that they will bring and railroad it through. Sometimes you may not manage to do it while at other times you may railroad and go and meet resistance in your own counties because people will ask questions on how you passed such a law. I want to urge this House and the Government side that instead of us haggling over a Bill that does not look like one anyway, to withdraw it and take it back to the drawing board. Give it the Committee and let us go through it thoroughly and bring a reasoned report telling us what it wants to achieve. If it is the county governments that are to appoint the managers of Kajiado, Kitengela, Ngong or Kiambu town, why would the criteria be set by the national Government without consulting those who will do it? Mr. Speaker, Sir, these are the big questions. As Senators representing the interests of counties and their governments, we have a duty not just to our narrow partisan interests but to the broader common good of what we came here to do: to strengthen devolution, make it work, benefit the people of Kenya and make it possible for 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."
}