Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 812072,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812072/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "However, it still brought an important aspect of the people having a direct say. It is only through public participation that people have a say in what happens in governance and in the projects that are run. I believe that this was cleverly crafted to ensure that people have a direct say other than that of the leaders who sometimes propose projects to reward their people and supporters which is done in a discriminatory manner. Public participation also ensures that there is transparency and accountability. For example, when people participate in the budget making process and they propose where their funds should be directed, they own that process. They will be interested in how the money will be used because they know how it has come about, how the budget has been allocated and the projects that are involved. They will also understand the laws that have been passed and how they can be properly enforced because they would have participated. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on public participation, the name speaks for itself. There was a time that as a Committee of Parliament, we got reports that the way public participation has been designed is not public participation per se. We were left wondering how public, public participation is. I say this because we had an instance where there was public participation on some regulations that touched on land matters. When we looked at the body that was conducting public participation, it did not represent the public. I talked about it earlier on in the House and indicated that this body had 18 members from one ethnic composition out of a total of 24. When we inquired how public participation was being done and asked for the attendance register, we ended up noting issues that should be improved. The kind of design of public participation that we have right now is one where the authorities call people to some hotel or boardroom they sit and make their submissions. According to me, this did not reflect public participation that is anticipated by our Constitution. In our provision, we did not anticipate a situation where a boardroom or a hotel meeting is public participation. In this instance, we went ahead to count how many people came from different Ministries. We found out that they were five or ten people in the whole county allegedly coming to give their views. To me, that is not a public participation. Therefore, the regulations that will flow from this particular Bill today should be done in such a way that we have real public participation. What is it that there cannot be public barazas to hear from the people? How do we call people to hotels and then call it public participation? We went further and inquired whether we have enough funding for these bodies to reach out to the people. Further, when we were speaking to the National Land Commission (NLC), they told us that they do not have money to go round to every county and do a proper public participation. They needed money to hire halls and do advertisements. Therefore, we cannot be talking of public participation if we do not allocate money for these bodies to conduct public participation. How do we call the people to participate? Do we advertise on Ramogi FM, Kass FM International or Nosim FM or newspapers? Is it effective? This Bill gives general principles that will guide us to perfect public participation to be what was anticipated in our Constitution. Currently, we do not have public participation in most our activities. 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."
}