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{
    "id": 801507,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/801507/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Bill. It is important that I make contribution because the proposed amendments touch, among others, my county. These amendments are necessary to increase the allocation for conditional grants to our counties. It is important that these amendments were brought in good time before we start the 2018/2019 Financial Year. Madam Temporary Speaker, these three programmes namely; the Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme, the Water Tower Protection and Climate Change Mitigation Adoption Programme, and the Kenya Urban Support Project of the World Bank are very important for devolution. To start with, insofar as agriculture is concerned, we are facing many problems in the agricultural sector at the moment. One such problem is the relationship between the national Government and county governments in giving support to the agricultural sector. Considering that the Constitution in the Fourth Schedule has devolved agriculture almost entirely except agriculture policy at the national level, it is important that even as we give out these conditional grants - as the Senate- we need to relook at the agriculture laws and the working framework between national Government and county governments. One of the things I realised the governors raised the other day in their state of counties address was that they have a problem with Summit meetings that are not structured. Also, the agreements and reports of the Summit are not made public. It must be remembered that under Intergovernmental Relations Act, the Summit is supposed to bring all reports and agreements made between national Government and counties to the Floor of this House for interrogation. Also, so that we can be guarantors - as the Senate - for the effective implementation of those agreements. Madam Temporary Speaker, for the last five years, and even in the last Parliament, there were many agreements that we have seen the President with the Chair of the Council of Governors (CoG) and the governors standing behind them saying that the Summit has met and agreed on health, agriculture or matters waters. However, no report has ever been tabled in this House for us to see the contents of that agreement. This House urges the President and the CoG to follow the law and make sure that the Summit meetings are structured and the reports from the Summit can be debated and tabled in this House. That way, by the time we are doing the Division of Revenue Bill and talking about conditional grants, we know that they are supporting a particular legal structure or agreements that have been made between the national Government and county governments. We have been told that the Agricultural Sector Development Support Programme is supposed to support the development of sustainable value chain for agriculture, so that we can ensure that we have proper production and processing of agricultural products. We will have small factories and co-operative societies at the local level. One of the persons who spoke recently with passion about co-operative societies is the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries who is a former Minister in 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."
}