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{
    "id": 798399,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798399/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 281,
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    "content": "crucial is the one of oversight. Kenyans have not benefited from this power which was vested in Article 185(3) which provides that: “A county assembly, while respecting the principle of the separation of powers, may exercise oversight over the county executive committee and any other county executive organs’. MCA’s are unable to oversight governors because you find that governors can deny a ward development money and once they do that, the MCA will ultimately lose an election and because they fear that, they will keep quiet whenever there is fleece and corruption because they do not want their people to suffer. The wards of the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) who are supportive of the governors get a lot of development resources. To fight the fear that they must kowtow to the governor, we need to pass this Bill because it will ensure that whether or not an MCA supports the governor, their ward will benefit. By doing that, MCAs will ensure that there is no corruption or anything bad happening in the county because their wards will be guaranteed resources. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is something called equality of development. I have been told of an instance where a certain governor decided to use 90 per cent of the entire development budget to tarmac a certain road. We need to respect the fact that he has been elected by the wananchi and the way they conceptualizes development differs. However, the problem with the decision he made is that, that road only passes through three wards out of about 30 wards in the entire county. Therefore, the balance of 27 wards in that financial year did not feel devolution. Only three wards benefited from that tarmac road. Therefore, we need to ensure that even as governors come up with their grandiose ideas, they should consider all human beings living across all the wards. We are not suggesting projects that will cost a lot of money. This Bill proposes that only 8 per cent of the total money allocated to respective counties be utilized for this Fund. For instance, the allocation for Murang’a County is Kshs6 billion. Therefore, 8 per cent is about Kshs500 million. The governor has the Kshs6 billion plus money from local revenues of about Kshs500 million. We are only proposing Kshs500 million to be guaranteed to the wards. Surely, that is a fair deal. The governor is at liberty do whatever he wants to do with the rest of the Kshs6 billion. Even if governors were to take away the recurrent expenditure of 50 per cent, they will be left with Kshs3 billion, which is a fair deal. They can do their roads but, at least, spare Ksh500 million for the wards; moreover, they will still have some power to direct where it will go. That is the rationale of this Bill. Madam Temporary Speaker, the other issue is about creating a legislative framework for counties that are already implementing the spirit of this Bill. The County Government of Meru that is headed by the former Senator of Meru, Gov. Kiraitu Murungi, is currently implementing this idea. The County Government of Kiambu, which is also headed by a former Councillor, Hon. Ferdinand Waititu, alias Baba Yao, is currently implementing the tenets of this Bill. However, they have expressed in public that they need a legislative framework, which explains the procedure of how to disburse that money. Therefore, this Bill creates a legislative framework to take into account some 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."
}