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{
    "id": 797852,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/797852/?format=api",
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    "content": "towards compensating his efforts in this era, apart from only acknowledging his contribution to the expansion of the democratic space in this country. The President also mentioned something on devolution, which is still very young in our country and has a long way to go. This is especially so when it comes to delays in the disbursement of funds to counties. Up to this time, counties still have a lot of problems when it comes to payment of workers because of the delays by the national Treasury in remitting funds to the counties. That has posed a lot of challenges in running counties. Realisation of achievements in counties is difficult because of the delay. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President also mentioned the growth and development of our country in term of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, this has not been felt by the locals in the society. It is still a mirage to most of them. They are not feeling it and I would have expected the President to address serious issues concerning the living standards of our people in the rural areas. I am also happy about the fact that he mentioned the Big Four Agenda. However, there are still a lot of challenges affecting our health sector. We still have challenges when it comes to strikes affecting our health sector, especially in the devolved units. Most health sector workers in counties are still facing a lot of challenges and that is why we still have strikes by nurses because of poor payment, services and so on. We have similar challenges even at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Insecurity was also mentioned by the President and we have seen the progress that has been made to address it. However, as some Members have mentioned, we still feel that some parts of the country are still insecure. I also expected the President to mention something to do with massive unemployment of youth, which is becoming very dangerous. Most of them are still very idle in villages and even here in the City. The other problem that we are still facing has to do with free secondary school education. It is still a mirage in this country. If you go to the villages, like in Bomet County where I come from, most secondary schools do not have enough teachers. We have several secondary schools with a population of about 300 students, but they do not have enough teachers. It has forced parents to pay fees, which challenges the idea of free secondary education. I expected the President to also touch on the employment of teachers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we welcome the handshake, but my expectation was that it should have started with all the ‘principals,’ including Sen. Wetangula and hon. Kalonzo Musyoka. It should not have been only between the President and the former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga. I would have wished to see all the principals with the President together in State House or Harambee House shaking hands and sending a message to all of us. The Deputy President should also have been there to shake hands and extend it everywhere. We have also seen the extent to which the handshake is limiting some people. It was surprising that when the Deputy President wanted to extend a handshake to the retired President Moi, it was limited. Therefore, I feel that the handshake is sending more signals of suspicion than bringing harmony in our country. 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"
}