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{
    "id": 780163,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/780163/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
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    "content": "In this particular clause, the Committee is empowered by law to undertake the process of facilitating this governor, including financial obligations and other facilitation. It is important that the Committee may not operate either; yes, it will be autonomous, but we should address cases where it is possible for the Committee to act in a rogue manner or with too much latitude where they may think that they are not going to be held accountable for things that they did, like how they incurred expenditure of public finances. That is why it is important for them to table within a month those requirements; financial reports that describe its activities so that they are accountable to the people of that county. The Bill requires that the assumption of office of county governor Committee has the report gazetted because that makes it official, legal and acceptable in the eyes of the law, after it has been gazetted. Clause 22 of the Bill requires that the assumption of office of the County Governor Committee shall also publicise all information within its control that affect the county. It also provides for the procedure to be followed when requesting for information from the Committee. This committee is not going to operate alone in isolation. It is not beyond members of the public of that County to ask questions to this Committee. It is important that there is a procedure upon which information that may be useful to Members of the county be availed and a procedure provided for. The necessity for publicising the information is also noteworthy because this information is public and is supposed to be published for all to know. Clause 23 of the Bill gives power to the Assumption of the Office of County Governor Committee to decline a request for information. This is in line with Article 35 of the Constitution on access to information, where disclosure of such information would be prejudicial to the security arrangements in place for the assumption of office of the county governor; it is undesirable in the public interest; or when the information requested for is at a deliberative stage by the Committee. What we are saying is that it is not under all circumstances that information is sought from this Committee at this sensitive period. The period between which the governor-elect is declared to have won the election up to the time when he or she assumes office remains to be a sensitive period until it expires when the process is over. Some information sought at this time could be used to sabotage the process, the Governor-elect or even the county. So, this committee has some room within which they can decide which information to disclose at the time of receiving the request, as guided by the law and provisions of Article 35 of the Constitution. If passed, the Bill will provide for the procedure of assumption of the Office of county governor and the deputy county governors. It will also serve to strengthen the principles of devolution as entrenched in Chapter 11 of the Constitution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I conclude, in 2013 when we went to our first elections after the acceptance of the 2010 Constitution by the people of the Republic of Kenya and we accepted devolution as our system of our Government, it is on record that each of the 47 counties, for lack of these provisions, received Kshs60 million for the purpose of the assumption of the office of county governors. I can authoritatively say, as 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."
}