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{
    "id": 799309,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/799309/?format=api",
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    "content": "not know when to come in and how to come in. I saw that when we had a disaster in Kisii County. One of the buildings collapsed and I happened to be there. When I went to the site, I had to take command of how things must move in order to have an effective rescue of those who were trapped under the building. Therefore, this Summit is a learning curve. How do we handle national disasters happening in different parts of our country? Some are in the form of mudslides. We need to train people on how to handle mudslides. Then, it will boil down to the revenue allocations to these counties. The two per cent that is being given at the moment is peanuts; it cannot handle a single emergency. When you apply that fund in one disaster, it ends up consumed. If you applied that fund in Tana River County, with the problems they have today, it will be used. I was happy with one of the news reporters who went around with a boat to try and see how much they can do. Apart from the Red Cross Society, I literally see no movement of any other people around the scene. As I said earlier, this is an area that is a learning curve for every one of us; how to manage human disasters. That is the second level of this Summit. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the third level of this Summit is to socialize. We do not know each other. We are total strangers to one another, yet we are supposed to be doing the same thing. This is an element that can only be brought about when we exchange across the floor or during the panel discussions or the committee discussions in the summit. I have looked at the programme of the Summit and I am convinced that if you get a mass of people in one corner in one room, they hardly reach any decision. We should restructure the committee level to smaller panels that will bring out the meat of the elements of the Summit itself, so that we come out with something substantive and we do not have to repeat the same thing year in, year out. We can only audit and find out whether the decisions that we will arrive at the Third Summit are issues that were properly examined and agreed upon at the plenary as resolutions and way forward. Therefore, the element of socialization is very important. One of the biggest impediments that we are experiencing, as Senators, is that when we request the Governors to appear before a committee, what automatically goes in their mind is that they are in for censure. That is far from it. We just want to exchange views, just like we shall be doing at the Legislative Summit. The Governors will come there freely; nobody will force them. Therefore, we must break that barrier of a feeling that they are in for censure and create a template where they feel that there is an interactive segment that will help them to advance the cause for which they have been elected and they have a mandate to discharge their responsibilities. The other element that we must inculcate in most of these summits that we are going to is the responsibility of a legislative organ at the county level; the need to stand their ground when things are going wrong. They do not have to be induced with a particular plot or ward programme. This is because that tends to blur the image and independence of the county assembly. The other day, I saw an MCA being threatened of being expelled from a Committee because he did not listen to the governor. That is a wrong premise upon which to build these people. We should empower them to enable them to stand firm on the ground. 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"
}