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{
    "id": 774958,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774958/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. If I may continue, that would, in fact, anchor this function firmly at county government. There is another component that we must tackle and I am glad that Sen. Wambua mentioned it. It is called Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). It is obvious that Makueni County cannot afford the Kshs36 billion project that is being done in Thwake. It is also obvious that Elgeyo Marakwet cannot do the Kshs24 billion project that is being done in its county, but it is possible under the constitution to do a PPP. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want Sen. Murkomen to take note that the regulations on the PPPs on county governments have not come to the Senate. This is one of those methods of raising funds for counties so that they are able to do these projects whether it is Kshs10 billion or Kshs3 billion because, again, the three-year period for borrowing by counties has lapsed. I am told that the counties will begin to borrow. One of the things they are going to do is to enter into this sort of programme and grants so that they can do big projects. Our objective as a Senate is to ensure that counties can do these projects. There is a canal called the Yatta Canal Water Project which has not helped food security in Ukambani. I do not know whether we are analysing these issues, like funding of these projects. I am surprised that the project in Kitui which we were all proud of is stuck because it relies on electricity as opposed to many other methods of generating electricity that we can do. Lastly, Egypt is famous for the Aswan Dam which we learnt in primary school. It does not receive as much rain as we do. But as a desert, they are doing much better in agriculture than we are. I am glad that the Senator for Embu County, Sen. Ndwiga is here because he should know this better than I do because he was the Chairman of Tana-Athi Development Authority when we began Thwake Dam Project. The amount of funding available to do good jobs is something that we have refused to exploit. Legislators from the County Assemblies, National Assembly and the Senate are flying to Israel like nobody’s business to check on Agriculture and part of it is management of water. So, I propose, just like the Senator for Nakuru County has said, we must look into the national Government component in this Bill to see whether in the end, we will claw-back on the functions of water services by counties and whether we will get capacity. I would rather that we do this prospectively and say that, in future, this body that has been set up here will hand over capacity to all county governments. Sen. Murkomen was the Chairman of the standing Committee on Devolved Government when we sent all appeals by all counties on some of these functions. This was one function that he 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."
}