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{
    "id": 777886,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/777886/?format=api",
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    "content": "Development Authority (LBDA) and other authorities do nothing but drain taxpayers’ money particularly in this kind of a devolved system. Out of that experience, I came to the realization that this country’s Parliament ought not to establish any other statutory body. It ought to ensure we do not create even a single extra statutory body. Therefore, I propose that my colleague considers deleting the entire Part V of this Bill and take what he is proposing to give to this commission to the IEBC Act. Madam Temporary Speaker, I heard my brother, the Senate Minority Leader, proposing that we have fewer counties. That will be the end of Kenya as we know it today, if we were to have such kind of a thing. I want to dissuade any person who ever thinks of reducing the number of our counties. In an ethnically divided country, one way of managing tension, is usually to reduce entities that can form spheres for conflict. If you were to have a Pwani County, that will be one way to foment agitation for secession. It makes all the sense to split up those nationalistic tendencies so that you do not have people coalescing together and causing trouble as huge blocks. I wanted to tell the Senate Minority Leader - though he has gone – that the whole idea of having 47 counties makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, you may have a situation where people are coming together and probably having other ideas because of being very large entities. We have several examples. If you look at the history of the former Yugoslavian State, one of the reasons why it split up is because the provinces that were there like Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo were very strong. They had strong regional governments that were somehow coinciding with ethnic groups. The same has also happened in places like Eritrea. The reason why it seceded from Ethiopia is because it had a strong government which became the focus for agitation for secession. The same thing is happening in Spain in a place called Catalonia. They have a very strong regional government with a huge territorial jurisdiction. On that basis, the leaders of Catalonia want to part ways with Spain. If the Spanish leaders had the foresight of splitting up Spain in smaller devolved units, it could have been better instead of having a situation where there is a large regional government. The same problem obtains in the United Kingdom (UK). The Scottish Government is championing the cause for a referendum to secede from the UK. I strongly disagree with the suggestion that we need to merge counties. We need to have as many counties as possible. Therefore, if at all this Bill is being brought here with such kind of a plan, again, I will oppose it. I doubt as to whether that can happen particularly now that my colleague is still on the other side of the minority. With those few remarks, I support the philosophy underpinning this Bill, but I have reservations on some of the key aspects appearing in this Bill. Thank you."
}