Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 812065,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812065/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "change along the way and this is what they are submitting. That way, they will be comfortable. On the issue of sustainable decision making, we have a problem at the county level. For example, you will find a water project somewhere in a particular year with funds assigned for drilling of a borehole. The following year, you will find that the borehole has been sunk, but there are no funds to equip the borehole and do the civil works. That project will, therefore, not be useful to the people until the necessary equipment is installed and the necessary civil works done for people to access the water. If there was sustainable decision making, it would have ensured that such projects are implemented. There are cases of classrooms being built without taking into account the issue of furniture. That classroom cannot be used because the issue of furniture or the other facilities was not factored. Therefore, sustainable development will ensure that there is completion of projects and follow up, which needs to be done by the authority or the institution. The county government can also alert the residents of that ward that it cannot start a new project because a previous project needs to be given priority and completed. Otherwise, we will have hanging projects and those are the questions that we will always be asked. The residents will keep on asking when the projects will be completed and we will keep asking them: “Did you not put them in this year’s budget?” They will then say that they were not reminded or consulted. This Bill, therefore, puts a responsibility on the implementing authority to make sure that the projects they start are actually done to a level where it is functional and can be used by the public. That principle is good. The Bill also assigns responsibility on who does what. It even specifies that public participation guidelines need to be developed by each organization. I want to bring your attention to Clause 8(4) (b) which says that the implementing authority has to give reports. In the report, it will have a description of any complaints made against the institution in respect of public participation. It must be very clear where these complaints will be directed to. This is because we cannot complain to the same authority and expect it to report on itself negatively when there are some questions on public participation. There should be another authority or institution where they will be reporting to. In this case, if it is the county government, the complaint should be directed to the relevant committee of the county assembly. This is because it is the one that is oversighting them. Otherwise, if we complain to the county government we should not expect it to report on itself by writing that they received complaints from so and so. The complaints should be addressed to the county assembly committee dealing with public participation. They are the ones who will then ask the county government to address those issues. That is an area that needs to be clarified. I would like to thank the Mover of the Bill for clearly coming up with a Schedule of what needs to be done where, especially in making sure that this information is available before any public participation is done. It should not be an ambush. The public should be informed in advance so that they concretize their ideas on what should be done for them. So, there should be a clear notice. For example, when we normally have the budget cycle, we usually know that in April we need to finalize our budgets allocations before we move to June. 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."
}